'J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.}* 

# _. # 

J ^Ae/f^-h. 

J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



When and How ; 



OR, 



A COLLECTION OF THE MOEE EECENT 

FACTS AND IDEAS UPON EA1SING 

HEALTHY CHILDEEN. 



BY 

DA1ST ETEWCOMB, M.D. 



AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN A POUND OF CURE." 



CHICAGO: 

ARTHUR W. PENNY & CO. 

1872. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, 

BY DAN XEWCOMB, M.D., 
in the office 0/ the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TO 

K S. DAVIS, A.M., M.D., 

THE SCHOLAR, PHILANTHROPIST, AND PHYSICIAN, 



THIS BOOK IS 



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 



THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Believing that there is not as much thought, study, 
and care spent upon "the knowing how" to raise 
healthy children as there should be — that children are 
what they are more by accident than from any reason- 
ing, so far as it concerns anything that human knowl- 
edge can effect ; and believing that this ought not to be 
thus — need not be thus ; and believing further, that 
" child-raising " is far more important than " stock- 
raising," though — judging from the efforts in that 
direction — it is not so considered; and knowing of 
no work written for the unscientific reader that gives 
the advanced ideas of Hygiene and Physiology as 
applied to the "ways and means" of obtaining healthy 
children: we have attempted to give, in terms and 
language adapted to popular reading, the latest well- 
founded knowledge in this direction. 

\i' we have succeeded in our undertaking sufficiently 
to call the attention of parents to the importance of 



VI PREFACE. 

raising healthy children or raising none, we shall feel 
that our effort has accomplished a good and a great 
mission. 

We have tried to teach that Nature has laws, and 
that if we would work in harmony with these laws, 
we must try to interpret the teachings that come to 
us instinctively, and then follow all the lessons of the 
infinite Creator as above the teachings of the finite 
creature. 

The general reader we would ask to read, and think 
this subject over, as of value to him and his descend- 
ants ; and to help his neighbor to the same " Hows ; " 
that as many children — who come into this life with- 
out being consulted — as possible, may come healthy, 
and then be raised in health. 

The scientific reader we would ask to be charitable, 
and to lend a helping hand to roll away the stone of 
physical ignorance that. is crushing the health — yes, 
the life — from many a '•man in embryo;" and to 
educate the people above uniting those diseased ele- 
ments that must entail disease upon their innocent 
child. 

AUTHOR. 

July, 1871. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 

Children the Eesult of their Ancestry — The 
Cause of Early Mortality — What will Pre- 
vent it — The Wrong of Bringing Unhealthy 
Children into this Life — Have Healthy Chil- 
dren or have None — The Knowledge of Phy- 
siology and Hygiene will tend to keep them 
Healthy — Nature's Hygienic Language — 
True Philosophy will both Obey and Teach 
it — It is an Astonishing Fact that Little is 
Taught or Obeyed — What have been the 
Guides in liaising Children — How the 
Mothers, to be, are Educated — What Parents 
will do, and then Wonder at Sickly Children 
— Moral Training — Unfolding the Intellect 



VI 11 CONTENTS. 

— Everybody Understands Stock-Raising — 
Most do not know how to Procreate and liaise 
a Healthy Child — What should be known of 
"Your Intended 11 — The Marriage Contract 
should Consider the " Prospective " Children 
— Child Raising more Important than Stock- 
Raising — The same Laws Apply to Both — 
In " Courting " Study the " Prospective " En- 
tailment- — " Hardening" Children. 



CHAPfER II. 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE 



What is Received Prior to Birth — And what it 
Determines — All Procreations bear Ancestral 
Impressions — Inherent and Acquired Morbid 
States Entailed — Stock-Breeders Propagate 
any Peculiarity — Two Modes of Transmis- 
sion — Invariable — Variable — Types of the 
Variable Transmission — Direct — Indirect — 
Ataveism — " Hereditary Influence " — The 
Endless Results of a Single Marriage — Think 
before you Marry in Haste — Physical Entail- 
ment — Counterfeit Humanity — Special Points 
of Transmission — What the Scientific Physi- 



CONTENTS. IX 

cian Sees — Fathers Entail to Daughters — 
Mothers to Sons — How to Entail the Good 

— Deceptions Used to " Get Married " — 
Should he Laws to Prevent — Ought we not 
to Prevent a Marriage that will Entail Disease 

— At least, we must Educate above it — De- 
teriorated Beings cannot Procreate Health — 
Marrying Contraries — Early and Late Mar- 
riages — Outside Influences upon Entailment 

— The Doctor's Advice as to whom you 
should Many. 



CHAPTER HI. 

PUKE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 

The Value of Pure Air to the Child — Infants 
Suffocated — Open the Windows and the 
Doors — Health and no Doctor Bills — Short 
Graves not Providential — Parents Responsi- 
ble for the Child's Health — What is Pure 
Air — How the Blood is kept Pure — Impu- 
rities in the Air., what they are — Close Rooms 
—The Burning of Lights — The Worst At- 
mospheric Impurity — How to Prove Air Im- 
pure — Did Fathers and Mothers know — 



CONTENTS. 

Scrofula, the way to Produce it — Why Coun- 
try Children Become Scrofulous — Consump- 
tion — Pure Air makes Children Cheerful— 
Impure Air makes a Sick Child Worse — The 
Location of Homes and Schools — How to 
Ventilate any House, and in Building New — 
The " Fire-Place " and the Stove — Children 
should Breathe all they can — Should Stand 
Erect— The -Five Gift of God" to Man— 
Build on High Places and Sleep High — Sew- 
erage and Water Ci<>s<>ts — Too Moist Air 
Where a Dry Atmosphere is Found. 



CHARTER IV. 

DIGESTION AND NTJTRinON'. 

Food and Force — Fuel and Force — Must be 
Equal in both Instances — Repair of W r aste, 
and Growth — Overfeeding and Underfeeding 

— The Appetite a Guide for the Child — 
Should be Gratified — Excess a Consequence 
of Restriction — Sweets and Sugars — Sole 
Use of One Article of Food — -A Consequence 

— A Strange Inconsistency — -Human Judg- 
ment vs. Nature — Animal Food — Vital Pow- 



CONTENTS. XI 

ers — A Mixed Diet — Meat Diet for Children 
— Illustrations from Animal Life — Beef and 
War — An Anatomical Argument — Conclu- 
sions — Variety of Food for Children — Cau- 
tion — Should Eat without Restraint — Do 
not Hamper them with Etiquette. 



CHAPTER V. 

FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 

The Food for Infants — Helpless Humanity — 
Nursing and Caring for our own Children — 
The Parents the Cause of the Child's Life — 
Milk is Nature's ".Sample Food" — The "Wet 
Nurse " — The " Bottle " — When to give 
Solid Food — When and How to Wean — 
Story of a Foolish Mother — Division of 
Foods into Four Groups — Proteids — Fats 

— Amyloids — Minerals — These should be 
Mixed — Analysis of Milk — Compared with 
Solid Food — Consequences of Feeding only 
one Group — Another Division — Animal — 
Vegetal )Je — Auxiliary — Butter and Cheese 

— Eggs — Meats — Fish — Wheat — Corn — 
Peas and Beans — Potatoes and Garden Veg- 



Xll CONTENTS. 

etables — Fruit — Condiments — Beverages 
— Fat Foods — Pork — Fat-eating Children 
Healthy — Candy and Sugar — How to Pre- 
vent Consumption — No Appetite for Fat 
Food — These are Reasons for learning Hy- 
giene. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 

A Story of Clean Animals — Its Application — 
The Anatomy of the Skin — The number of 
Glands in it — Their Length if Connected — 
The Uses of these Glands — The Odor of 
their Secretion — The Unclean .Mother and 
Infant — The Healthy, Dirty Child an Excep- 
tion — Use Water, and not Restraint, to Keep 
the Child Clean — A Dirty Shirt is Smelt 
when it is not Seen — Clean Under-clothes 
are Exhilerating — How to keep the Child's 
Skin Clean — The Use of Soap — The Art of 
Preserving Life — To Prevent Disease of the 
Skin — Clothing and the Sensation of Cold — 
The so-called Hardening Process — The Dress 
of Grown Person and Child Compared — 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

Dressing the Little Boy — The Little Girl — 
The Ballet Girl and the Little Girl's Dress 
Compared — The Younger, the More Need of 
Warmth — Overdressing — Flannel — Light 
Dress — Habits of Cleanliness — Cleanliness 
a Passport to Good Society. 



CHAPTER VH. 

ACTIVITY AND EXEECISE. 

Animal Life a Life of Activity — Vegetable Life 
a Life of Inactivity — Muscles deprived of 
Use are soon Ruined — Exercise Increases 
Nutrition — Healthy Children cannot keep 
Still — The Activity of the Child and Young 
Animal Compared — In Exercise let the Child 
follow its Instinct — Gymnastics vs. Child's 
Play — In Exercise Girls are too much Re- 
stricted — Pity the " Coming Child " — Boys 
and Girls should be treated the same until 
Puberty — The " Tom Boy " makes a Strong 
Woman — How to Prevent " Female Com- 
plaints " J )r. Allen on Physical Degenera- 
tion— " Not Lazy but Constitutionally Tired" 
— Building Good Foundations for Man and 



V CONTENTS. 

Womanhood — Learning the Child to Labor 

— Excessive Lai >or — A Sad Picture — A 
Lazy Child is the Parents' Fault — Labor at 
Puberty — The Budding Woman — Labor 
after Eating — Doing two things at once — 
Mental Exercise, how to Study — Mind and 
Body should Grow Together — The Beauty 
of a Strong Physique and Great Brain Power 

— Who Move the World. 



CHAPTER Vin. 

SLEEP. 

What is Sleep — Construction most Active dur- 
ing Sleep — A Life-giving Process — The 
Child Asleep before Birth — Sleep and 
Growth — Our Bodies ever Changing — 
When and How the Child Grows — Every 
Act, Mental or Physical, causes Brain Waste 
— Sleep a Reservoir on the River of Life — 
Dr. J. C. Draper's idea of the Growth of the 
Child — Assimilation rapid during Sleep — 
Time Required in Sleep — The " Early to Bed 
and Early to Rise " Motto — We do not teach 
Indolence — After-dinner Nap — Causes that 



XV CONTENTS. 

Produce Sleep — The "Soft Spot" on the 
Infant's Head — The Brain always at Work 
when not Asleep — The Immediate Cause of 
Sleep — Order of Falling Asleep — Dream- 
ing — Mediate Cause of Sleep — Digestion a 
Mediate Cause — Wakefulness and the Diet — 
Late Suppers — The " Nightmare and Hob- 
goblins " — How to have the Children Avoid 
a Sleepless Night — Warm Bath to the Body 
or Feet, and Cold to the Head — Sleeplessness 
and Brain Power — Little Sleep, Little Cheer- 
fulness — The Peevish Child should Sleep 
More — Great Brain Labor requires Great 
Sleep — Students should Sleep Much — What 
Wears the Student — Sleep and Puberty — 
Children should not Sleep with Old or Feeble 
Persons — In the Amount of Sleep, follow 
the Instinct. 



WHEN AND HOW. 



CHAPTER I. 

Physiological and Hygienic Knoivledge. 

CHILDREN ORIGINATED LONG BEFORE BIRTH. 

ALTHOUGH children are usually consid- 
ered the beginning of men and women, 
yet a little thought will show us that they 
have an origin exceedingly more minute — that 
reaches much farther back than to birth. 

Dr. Holmes says : " There are people who 
think that everything may be done, if the doer, 
be he educator or physician, be only called in 
season. No doubt — but in season would often 
be a hundred or two years before the child was 
born ; and people never send so early as that." 
"A hundred or two years" docs not reach far 
17 



18 WHEN AND HOW. 

enough back to include all " the doers " who 
have had a part in making the people what 
they now are. In the children of to-day we can 
see and trace the results of what these " doers " 
— called long enough ago — have been doing. 

Though these children are not the beginning 
of men and women, they are " a drive " on the 
route from primeval existence to — no end. 
They are an embryotic nation, that are for a few 
years to fill our places after we pass away, and 
then in their turn are to step off the threshold 
of time, to be replaced by a people yet in the 
loins of their ancestry. And so <>n we go ; chil- 
dren coming on at every stage of the route — 
some reaching the point of birth, others stopped 
on the way, and only about one-half who are 
started on the infancy "drive" reaching the 
mature life. 

EARLY MORTALITY AXI) I(i>?0RANCE. 

And why this stopping by the way? Why 
this falling out of the path, when a life that is 
to be immortal is once called into existence? 
Why this cutting short the distance by "going 
'cross lots" from earth to the "spirit land,' 1 
instead of traveling round the road of life via 



HYGLENEC KNOWLEDGE. 19 

four-score years ? One-fourth of the infants born 
die before they pass the infant age , and it is 
more than probable that many less than one- 
half the embryos ever mature to an infant life. 

But we do not now propose to speak of the 
blighted ovum or of the diseased infant, but 
only of the healthy, and how to keep them so. 
In answer to some of these questions we would 
say: the great reason for the early mortality 
of so many children lies in our ignorance, and 
because we have not learned from the book of 
Hygiene the laws of health-keeping. 

SANITARY LAWS ARE GOOD. 

There are sanitary laws, or principles, that 
will assist us in keeping our health good ; that 
will guide us in generating healthy children ; 
that will help us to rear these children as strong 
and vigorous beings, both in mind and body. 
But these laws will do us no good until we 
know them; nor should we spend our time and 
thoughts in trying to learn them unless we 
think them knowable, and then believe them 
useful, and such as we can apply to our every- 
day life. 

Many of our best minds of our strongest 



20 WHEN AND HOW. 

thinkers, have, through all the past ages, l>een 
engaged in discovering and applying these laws 
of health ; and a large number of facts have 
been accumulated, which have been proven, by 
practical applications, very beneficial and valu- 
able in continuing good health. 

We do not say that these rules, followed 
never so closely, will remove all disease, sick- 
ness, and pain from the world; but we do 
believe that if Ave would study Hygiene and 
Physiology, as we now study Arithmetic and 
Grammar in our common schools, and then 
make a thorough application of their teachings 
at our homes in our even-day life, sickness, 
except from contagion, would be very rare. 

A "PICTURED ^ (ASK. 

Let us picture a case: Take a man and 
woman — a husband and wife — who are un- 
doubtedly healthy and strong, and whose ances- 
try far back have been the same; who have 
only been diseased from what may be classed 
as accidents — these leaving no constitutional 
imprint ; who have been regular in their habits 
of life in every particular ; who have had pure 
aii', good food, and warm clothing ; who have 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. ^ 21 

kept clean, and have slept enough and not too 
much; who have been regular in their habits 
of diet, and in all their bodily functions ; who 
have not been unduly given to indulgence of 
the passions — especially the sexual passion ; 
who have not been idlers, either mentally or 
physically, but have labored every day with 
due diligence. Let such a woman become preg- 
nant by such a man, and still keep her steady, 
even way of living ; and in due time a son is 
born unto them. Such a child is as sure to be 
a well child as it is to be born. Now, with 
this healthy starting, what will make him 
sickly? He will undoubtedly suffer from the 
usual contagious diseases — as the measles, 
chicken pox, and scarlatina ; but if he is nursed 
and cared for by his own mother, so that no 
law of Hygiene is broken, he is as sure to be 
healthy and strong as the calf or lamb is. 

PARENTS SIIOTfLD UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS, OR 
STOP HAVING CHILDREN'. 

Very justly you may say that such a parent- 
age is rare. Granted ; 1 nit if this be the fact, 
bo much greater is the reason for studying and 
living up to health-preserving rules. If we can- 



22 WHEN AND HOW. 

not do this we should stop being fathers and 
mothers, should cease to be a means of intro- 
ducing disease and death — premature death — 
in a form where it affects the nearest and 
dearest of life's ties. Are we, as an American 
people, doing right in thus neglecting these 
studies ? — who are so active and ami >iti< >ns, 
and expect so mueh of our sons and daughters 1 

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 

It is not from a disposition to neglect their 
children that many do not study the laws of 
parentage, but from a feeling that it is just as 
well without — that these studies will not im- 
prove the matter. Or perhaps it is from a 
feeling that these afflictions of lite are "provi- 
dential/ 1 and are sent for their good. 

But let us no more impute these evils to a 
"Wise Providence," for we cannot believe that 
God is in any way connected with causing 
sickness in the innocent child, or that Nature 
is responsible for the hereditary taint of infirm- 
ity that our children receive 

We are continually breaking some of the 
known, or knowable, laws of health and of 
Nature, and the effect of these breaches becomes 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 23 

an acquired constitutional infirmity in us ; and 
our child, begotten while we were under this 
constitutional effect, shows a predisposition to 
develop the same weakness. 

Who is to 1 )lame — the Supreme Being who 
made the laws of health, or the parent who 
broke them by not living well or by living 
viciously ; who thus not only suffered himself, 
but was the cause of suffering to the child 
through life? Nature did not do this — the 
parent did it. 

OUR ERRORS NOT ALL OURS IN RESULTS. 

From this view we see that we, as parents, 
are in a very responsible place; our errors are 
not ours alone in effects, but are ours and our 
children's after us, until, unless corrected, our 
family becomes extinct. 

Now, we claim that most of the physical 
weaknesses of life might be eradicated in a few 
generations, if we, as parents, would act up to 
the knowledge possessed by medical science, 
and which might be shared by us, upon the 
sul ))<■(•( of procreating and rearing children. 
The masses of the people — who are the most 
fruitful— do imt sec (he necessity of, or the ben- 



24 WHEN AND IIOAV. 

efits to be derived from, the study of Hygiene 
and Physiology; and physicians commit a grave 
error when they fail to show parents what 
course will inevitably cause sickly issue, and 
what other course will give them healthy chil- 
dren. We believe it to be very wrong, that all 
the knowledge that has been obtained upon this 
most important subject should remain in the 
possession of a few, leaving cadi generation to 
come up no wiser or stronger than preceding 
ones. 

TEACH HYGIENE IX SCHOOLS AND AT HOME. 

That we may take advantage of what know- 
ledge has been obtained, we must introduce the 
study of Hygiene into our schools and our 
homes; we must study it ourselves, and teach 
it to our children. We must cease to feel any 
false modesty in taking up these different sub- 
jects, and looking at them in their true light — 
in the light that will show us the facts, and 
explain them to us and to our children. 

VERY FEW TRULY HEALTHY. 

Look around among your acquaintances and 
count the number who are truly healthy. It 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 25 

will not take you long, unless yon are in a 
healthier community than is generally found. 
Perhaps you may meet one or two who have 
lived to a good old age, and have lived in 
health all their lives, and who now seem to be 
dying more of old age than from disease. But 
against these we can balance a hundred in 
every community who are sickly during life — 
full of aches and pains, or that have died before 
their natural time from disease. 

One person can hardly be found who has 
not, in the course of his life, brought upon 
himself acute or chronic illness, that a little 
knowledge, which would have led to proper 
cure, would have saved. 

PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Here we. see a disease of the heart, which 
was caused by an exposure that gave rheuma- 
tism. There we see a case of weak eyes, 
brought on by over-use. Over yonder we find 
a lameness that will last a lifetime, induced by 
using an inflamed joint — even in spite of the 
warning pain — that with rest might have been 
good now. In that tidy little cottage you can 
see a poor, deformed being, weak in mind as 



26 WHEN AND HOW. 

well as body, whose infirmities were inherited 
from a father and mother who were strongly 
tainted with scrofula, 

HAD THEY ONLY KNOWN. 

Had those parents known what the}' might 
have known, the}- would never have had that 
mental and physical deformity to trouble their 
minds. Had they known that the disease that 
they labored under was liable to be doubled in 
its force in the child — had the}- known that 
Rickets were quite likely to trouble the chil- 
dren of parents who were both scrofulous — 
they would not have married each other; but 
each would have married one who was full 
of physical vigor. Or if the} had known how 
to prevent conception, they could have saved 
this blighted life that the}- have been the cause 
of not only being, but of being diseased. Thus 
a little Hygienic knowledge would save chil- 
dren from being bora to disease, by preventing 
the union of parties who could not procreate 
health}- children; or by preventing conception 
from following the union. These are proofs 
that if we only knew we would do better; 
hence arguments m favor of knowing. We 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 27 

take these examples to show how we are daily 
suffering, and causing our children to suffer, by 
what we do, both before and after birth. 

SORROW PRODUCED BY DISEASE. 

We would not speak of the pain, weariness, 
gloom, and waste of money that are sure to 
follow in the path of disease; but we would 
call attention to how much time is lost from 
the discharge of duties, and how irritable it 
makes the tempers of both parents and child. 

A VIGOROUS FAMILY TREE. 

Is it not plain, that if we bring our children 
up healthy in body and mind, we shall thus be 
the means of not only giving them a happier 
life, but of preventing the entailment of any 
constitutional tendency to disease upon their 
children? for we have laid a foundation for a 
strong, vigorous family tree, whose roots have 
started from our loins. 

NO ENJOYMENT WITHOUT HEALTH. 

Without health and energy, all the pursuits 
of life — the necessary labor, the parental and 
social relations, and every other aim of life — 



28 WHEN" XKD HOW. 

are obstructed or become impossible. And 
should not a knowledge that will remove these 
hindrances be of importance enough to merit a 
thought or two, if it is not of sufficient worth 
to be taught in our common schools \ 

THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE. 

Perhaps it may be said that Nature has 
insured a conformity to our well-being, by giv- 
ing us various physical sensations and diseases 
— such as pain from over-doing and from inju- 
ries, hunger from want of food, and thirst to 
supply water. It is very fortunate for us that 
we d<> have pain to admonish us of danger; 
and that heat, cold, hunger, and thirst produce 
promptings that cannot lie easily forgotton or 
refused; and if we would always obey these 
promptings of Nature, and all others of like 
kind, many less evils would arise. Jf we would 
always rest when the body or mind is tired — 
if we would always get pure air when op- 
pressed with its closeness — if we would never 
eat except when hunger calls, and always eat 
when it does — if we would only and always 
obey the demands of thirst, and if we would 
always obey the teachings of Nature in the 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 29 

exercise of our passions — we should rarely 
have to say " I am sick." 

But in many instances there is so great an 
ignorance or indifference to these plain laws 
of Nature, that we do not realize that disobe- 
dience to them is freighted with evil conse- 
quences — that men and women, fathers and 
mothers, who have assumed the care of an 
opening life, do not realize that these sensations 
are Nature's language to us, telling us what is 
for our good; and that when they have not 
been made morbid by long disobedience they 
are very trustworthy guides. 

Though Nature has given us rules in the 
form of sensations, lack of knowledge has made 
them often useless; and we throw down the 
gauntlet by misdoing. Here we see that a 
knowledge of Nature's language will lead us to 
a direct care of ourselves and our children, and 
prevent great loss of health and often of life. 
We do not suppose that a knowledge, ever so pro- 
found, will immediately save us from all disease 
— as the constitutional cachexy will be entailed 
upon the child until it is corrected by living in 
accordance with Nature's laws, or until the fam- 
ily has become extinct by ceasing to have issue. 



30 WHEN AND HOW. 

HEALTH THE KEYSTONE OF PHILANTHROPY. 

The largest elements of happiness in this 
world are found in sound, robust health ; and 
no matter what prospective or present blessings 
we may have, unless we are well — sound in 
body and in mind — we cannot appreciate or 
enjoy them. Thus, lessons that teach us how to 
preserve health in ourselves and our children 
are worth more to us, so far as our real happi- 
ness and enjoyment are concerned — not to speak 
of pecuniary profit — than any other whatever. 

Therefore we claim that books, teachings, and 
lectures, that instruct how to preserve health, 
are at the bottom of all earthly happiness — 
are the keystone of true, active philanthropy; 
and every parent, or prospective parent, should 
learn these lessons, as of more value to them 
than any other lessons that may be taught. 

When we, as parents, truly understand this 
fact in the light of scientific truth, and then 
make a practical application of our wisdom to 
the procreation and rearing of our children, we 
shall begin to have a healthy people ; and Ave 
shall not as often call for a cure as we shall call 
for instruction to prevent disease. 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 31 



AN ASTONISHING FACT. 



It is truly an astonishing fact, that though 
upon the treatment of children after birth, and 
upon their parentage, depend their health and 
life — whether good and sound, long or short — 
as, also, their moral welfare or ruin ; yet nothing 
is taught that has a bearing upon these points 
of child-rearing to the fruitful masses. They 
are neglected, though they are peopling the 
world. While we are ever giving lesson upon 
lesson in the art of providing for self, it is very 
strange that we never give them lessons upon 
the art of preserving self. 

This is all left to chance — the blind goddess 
who often leads to ruin. 

GUIDES TO RAISING CHILDREN. 

Fancy, impulse, unreasoning custom, joined 
with the suggestions of ignorant nurses — who 
usually are " old maids," not practically learned 
— and the interested council of grandmothers, 
are the guides to raising a child, to developing a 
Inn nan life. That Nature has a law for the ova, 
foetus, infant, and child, is never once thought 
of, much less ever learned and followed. 



32 WHEN AND HOW. 

We would think that man a fool, who — 
knowing nothing < >f farming — should buy a 
farm and attempt to work it with no one to 
help him who was used to its labors and versed 
in its arts ; Ave Mould think that man a knave 
who should attempt to practice medicine and 
surgery, having never studied the art; and, 
above all things, we would pity his patients. 
But we can see parents, every day of our lives, 
assume the resonsibility of giving a life to a 
child — their child — and attempt the task of 
rearing it, without having given a thought to 
the principles — physical, moral, or mental — 
that Nature has given them as a guide; and 
we do not even show surprise at- such parents, 
or pity their children. 

HOW GIRLS AIM'. EDUCATED FOR MATEKISTITY. 

The young mother a few months ago was at 
school, where she was crowded with words, 
t'aets, and dates, of no practical value to her as 
a mother; in fact her teachings and lessons 
were just those that would teach anything but 
the duties she was soon to assume. She has 
neA^er been taught to think for herself, to reflect, 
t'» reason: and thus she has not the mental 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 33 

culture that would help her in such a trying 
ordeal as that in which maternity places a 
woman; her discipline did not in the least 
prepare her for thinking of ways and means of 
her own. 

Music, French, fancy work, novel reading, 
party-going, and beau-catching, were the aims 
of her life previous to marriage ; and almost no 
solid mental culture has she obtained to enable 
her to fulfill the responsible position of giving 
and nurturing a life. 

A LIFE "ALL HER OWl" TO CASE FOE. 

After — and frequently too shortly after — 
she has a human life " all her own " — hers and 
her husband's — intrusted to their care; and 
their tender mercies. 

How much does she know of how she should 
raise it, that it may bloom in sound, healthy 
beauty? She probably does know that it 
should nurse; but how soon, or how often? 
Some nurse tells her — who has never heard of 
but <>ne way and rule — which is "just as you 
happen to," or when the lusty cry will not be 
stopped without it; but she is not told that 
regularity is the first law of an infant's health. 
2* 



34 WHEN AND 1IC$Y. 

She probably knows that cleanliness is good, or 
the same old nurse has told her so ; and from 
indolence or thoughtlessness it is washed in 
cold water, applied to a skin that never knew 
a chill of any kind. 

CALLING THE DOCTOR. 

Anon, the doctor is sent for because the baby 
sleeps all the time ; or because it has a colic — 
" as it would starve if it were not fed," and an 
indigestible compound was the first food the 
little to-be-pitied one received into its stomach. 
All practicing physicians have seen many cases 
even more extreme than these ; all because the 
"mother did not know." 

As the child grows older, it is underfed — 
for the weak, feeble mother cannot supply its 
wants; and in another month or two we find 
its limbs left without dress — red from cold; 
and soon this child is sick in earnest, and then, 
perhaps, the mother does not know it. 

WHAT PARENTS WILL DO, THEN WONDER. 

Parents will doom their children to live upon 
a monotonous diet, and wonder that they are 
weak and enervated — that their energy is 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 35 

diminished. They will clothe their children in 
short dresses, leaving their legs, arms, and necks 
naked, and wonder that they are stunted in 
growth, or deficient in power, or that their 
maturity is not vigorous — that their whole life 
is one of illness. They will keep their children 
indoors, and then wonder that they are not 
strong and able to endure outdoor air — won- 
der that they " catch cold " every time they 
chance to steal out. 



When children are not strong and robust, 
the cause is not sought out ; but it is considered 
to be " so ordered," or providential, and passed 
by as a misfortune. We think it is a misfor- 
tune, but one from a far different cause. It is 
"so ordered," that if a child is not fed, clothed, 
and aired in a sufficient manner, he should be 
puny ; but the fact of his being so treated is far 
from providential. So much so that God will 
hold all parents responsible for the physical no 
less than the moral training of their children. 
All parents are responsible for the health of 
their issue. 



36 WHEN AND HOW. 

WE HAVE NO EIGHT TO ENTAIL DISEASE. 

If they have entailed disease upon their off- 
spring, they have wronged the innocent, who 
have had no voice in being brought into this 
world, and certainly should not be here to 
suffer; and no person has any moral right to 
become a parent who cannot show a health 
record that will not entail disease upon his 
child. 

A father who has been the means of a life, is 
in double duty bound to do all in the power 
of man to make that life a healthy one physi- 
cally; for physical health is the basis of all 
moral strength and intellectual success. 

o 

MORAL TRAINING. 

In passing from the physical teachings to the 
moral, we find as great a chance for improve- 
ment. Most parents know nothing of the emo- 
tional nature — how it unfolds — and thus are 
not prepared to teach them on this and other 
moral topics; and the child is left to "come 
up." They Aave an impression that the child 
is bad by nature; some thinking it "totally 
depraved, 1 ' others that some of the feelings are 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 37 

wholly bad, while still others think that some 
of the feelings are wholly good; all of which 
ideas will lead to a bad education of the child's 
moral powers. 

While they are ignorant of the moral status 
of the child, they are equally at fault as to the 
effect of any particular kind of moral instruc- 
tion; and their interference is often a great 
injury. The child is often worse in moral 
tendencies than he would have been had he 
been left entirely to himself. An action quite 
good in itself, and beneficial to the child, is 
thwarted by the parent, whose temper, as well 
as the child's, is made worse. 

Deeds and actions that are thought desirable, 
ore performed under threats, bribes, or the hope 
of getting applause ; the parent never thinking 
of the moral motive of the child. A child 
under such influences becomes fearful, selfish, 
or a hypocrite. 

TEACHING TRUTH A^ T D EXAMPLES OF UNTEUTH. 

While teaching the child to be truthful in all 
things, parents arc constantly setting examples 
of untruth, in threatening what they do not 
execute, and what the child soon conies to 



38 WHEN AND HOW. 

know will not "be executed Teaching self-con- 
trol to the child, they enforce their teachings 
with angry scoldings; and for acts of the child 
that ought not to be noticed, except in the 
kindest way. 

Incapable of self-government — incapable of 
controlling the course of their own mental and 
moral life — we cannot expect them to direct 
others aright, 

THE INTELLECT WRONGLY UNFOLDED. 

We find the intellect of children < >ften wrongly 
unfolded. The)' are supplied with primmers as 
soon as they can talk, and the idea that from 
Looks, and only from books, comes knowledge, 
is instilled into their minds ; and thus children 
learn mechanically what others have learned 
before, and are not trained to the use of their 
own minds. In fact, their brains become a 
storehouse for other people's ideas, instead of a 
manufactory of their own. Their minds are 
crammed, from the first dawn of consciousness, 
with a course <>t' teaching that makes them 
dependent upon others — that makes them look 
to other brains than their own. 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 39 

WE WANT AN INDEPENDENCE OF THOUGHT. 

When they become men and women they 
have not that independence of thought that 
will take what it has acquired of knowledge 
and facts, and then, by their own intellection, 
draw conclusions and put them into practical 
operation. If they chance to form a conclusion 
they find it necessary to be supported by some 
other person, or by some book, having never 
learned to "hwiv that they know." Their 
teachings lead them to lean on anything but 
self. We want less book-knowledge and more 
thinking for self — more self-reliance — more 
teaching our children that they can do for 
themselves, from their own resources and their 
own internal powers of intellection ; that their 
thoughts are as good as anybody's. The native, 
inherent, or spontaneous education will always 
be neglected so long as parents fail to use their 
mental powers; especially in studying how to 
make the most of their children. 

AXSWEK THE CHILD'S QUESTIONS. 

There is that in the infant that will educate 
its own mind, if we will but answer its ques- 



40 WHEN AND HOW. 

tions. The restless observation of the child is 
seeing and hearing everything around it; and 
instead of being checked, by telling it " not to 
ask so many questions," it should be encouraged 
by a diligent help, until all the powers of the 
perception are fully developed — until all it 
sees and hears is seen and heard as quickly and 
understood as well and remembered as surely 
as is possible. Then the child is ready to take 
books, and learn what others have worked out ; 
only depending upon books as helps. 

But we would be straying from our field of 
good, healthy children, if intellect and morals 
were not necessarily included with the physical 
elements in sound health. 

FARMERS UNDERSTAND STOCK-BREEDING. 

When we visit any one of our farmers, be 
they large or small cultivators or stock-raisers, 
what will we hear as the foremost conversation? 
The weather and its effects upon the crops and 
upon the stock — sheep, cows, and colts. They 
will tell us how much pains they have taken to 
get this stock to cross with their old stock — 
this kind of sheep to cross with their old sheep 
— and this kind of hogs to imrn-ove their 



IIYGEE2TIC KNOWLEDGE. 41 

swine. The)' will tell us all about their seed- 
wheat, their seed-oats, their seed-potatoes, and 
their seed-peas and beans ; how this is the best 
seed, and will give the largest crop of the best 
quality of grain. They will tell us how to 
cross swine, so as to get the greatest deside 
ratum in the hog. They will tell us how to 
breed so as to get good beeves, good milkers, 
and good work-oxen. They know all the neces- 
sary steps to get fine-woolled sheep, or those 
that will make good mutton; and we cannot 
ask a question on the raising of colts as farm 
horses, coach horses, or roadsters, but they will 
answer, and tell us correctly all the steps to 
obtain such or such stock. They will point 
out horses and say, a cross there will give you 
some " two-forty steppers," and that such an- 
other cross will give some good farm horses. 
They will spend money and go far to get the 
best blooded stock into their stalls, and are 
rarely deceived into getting a different colt than 
they wanted. They will tell us that such a 
foal will not make a valuable horse, and that 
BUCE another one will make a valuable animal. 
Bow are they thus well posted? By obser- 
vation, study, and thought; and then by each 



42 WHEN AND HOW. 

man comparing his ideas with his neighbor's. 
It is but in part by book-knowledge, though 
we find they read works on stock-raising. 

THE MECHANIC AND LABORER UNDERSTAND IT. 

If we visit the professional man or the me- 
chanic, we will find them as well posted. The 
daily laboring mechanic will tell you all about 
the breed of his hog — why it is, or why it 
is not, the best; and hence he knows how to 
obtain the best. Ask him of his hens, and you 
will find he knows from what blood come those 
best for the table; how the ".top-nots" were 
originated, and when and where the "Shanghai" 
will cross to t lie best advantage. They will tell 
us that if we plant two kinds of corn near each 
other, or sow t\v«> kinds of oats in a near field, 
they will "mix, 11 and that the cross will im. 
pr<»ve or deteriorate the quality of the grain, as 
the case may be. They know that strawberries 
will "mix," and become more thrifty bearers, 
and whether they will be larger or smaller. 
They know that such a cross is an improvement, 
and that another one is not a profitable one. 
These things they have observed and read, so 
they are well posted. Now, what has caused 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 43 

them to become thus well posted upon these 
points ? 

The answer comes that their interest has led. 
them to strive for the best — that where men's 
dollars and cents are, there their thoughts are. 

THEY UNDERSTAND THE QUALITIES OF FOOD. 

They all know the quality of each article of 
food given their stock. They all know that one 
kind fattens, and another grows, and another 
gives activity. The economy of all varieties of 
food are understood and practiced. Having a 
hog to fatten, they know how to feed it; or 
wishing him to grow, they know how to change 
the food to meet the want. They know how 
frequently it is economy to have an increase of 
young animals; and are sure to restrain this 
frequency within healthy bounds. 

BUT DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PROCREATE HEALTHY 
CHILDREN. 

But how is it in regard to raising children ? 
Do these fanners, mechanics, and professional 
men know how to raise a healthy child \ Do 
they here understand the effect of "mixing" 
and ''crossing"? 



44 WHEN AND HOW. 



MAN SEEKING A WIFE. 



It is very rare that a man, seeking a wife, 
considers the question of the ability of the 
woman sought to be a healthy mother — to 
give birth to healthy children. It is very 
rarely that the question of entailment of phys- 
ical strength and soundness of mental power 
is thought of as concerning our children, when 
we are selecting a life partner — one to be the 
mother or father of our 1 >< >ys and girls. 

WOMAN BOUGHT TO BECOME A WIFE. 

It is very rare that a woman ever thinks or 
asks herself or another, if this man, who lias 
solicited her to become his wife, is sound in a 
physical sense; if he has none of' those taints 
of constitution that will leave their stamp upon 
her children; if he has none of those acquired 
physical or mental habits that will be surely 
entailed upon his offspring to their disadvant- 
age. In short, the question is not considered, 
whether this is a judicious crossing for the 
coming generation. 



HYGIEjnC KNOWLEDGE. 45 

A VERY STRANGE COMMENTARY. 

What a strange commentary it is, that we, as 
a people, should be well versed upon all 
points touching the raising of a colt, that we 
should take every advantage to raise good 
ones, and yet never spend any time or thought 
upon the raising of a child; that we will 
marry a wife or husband from any motives 
of policy, such as standing — social or politi- 
cal — money, or even love itself, without con- 
sideiing the results of the union upon the 
coming human beings, when those beings are 
to be our children. We vie with each other 
in striving to raise the best calves, lambs, 
pigs, and colts; and are careless of learning 
how to raise unto ourselves strong, robust, 
healthy children. 

MAX, FOR SUCCESS, MUST BE A GOOD ANIMAL. 

An author says that "the first requisite of 
success in this life is to be a good animal ; " and 
to be a nation of good animals is the first condi- 
tion of national prosperity. 

The results of war, commerce, and agriculture 
are turned upon it, as well as the mental worth 



46 WHEN AND HOW. 

of a people ; for no animal can do, that has no 
physical stamina as a basis. 

CHILDREN MUST BE CONSIDERED LN THE MAR- 
RIAGE CONTRACT. 

If we would progress as a nation, it is neces- 
sary that we take into consideration more fully, 
not only the training of our children, but con- 
sider in every marriage the question of adapta- 
bility, each to the other, in reference to the issue 
of the marriage; that we should learn to love 
such, and such only, as have a constitutional 
worth — a bodily power that will best mingle 
with our own in our children, to give a powerful 
physical ability — learn to love such second only 
to the love for those children, and that first love 
we owe the Great Law-giver ; and not be led by 
passion, blindfold, over the precipice of what 
will be blighted hope, by giving form to sickly, 
wasting issue, who are such as they are because 
their father and mother did not know them- 
selves as well a- they knew the cattle in their 
fields; or if they did know, did not act upon 
that knowledge. 

Happily for our great American people, hap- 
pily for parents, and, above all, happily for the 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 47 

coming generation, these ideas are beginning to 
attract attention. 

PHYSICAL DEGENERATION MUST STOP. 

There is a growing opinion that our physical 
degeneration must find a stopping place; that 
we must act with the same care in rearing chil- 
dren that we exercise in raising our domestic 
animals ; and if we will use the same diligence 
in learning how to entail health, and how to 
guard against the develojDment of hereditary 
tendencies to disease, that is used in the stables 
of our fanners, we shall soon have much less use 
for doctors — many less short graves — fewer 
Rachels weeping for their children because they 
are not, and far less sorrow among the little 
ones. 

RAISING CHILDREN MORE IMPORTANT THAN STOCK- 
RAISING. 

We would not teach that it is of no import- 
ance to know how to raise, feed, and train our 
domestic animals, but that it is time the benefits 
they receive should be given to our children. 
"We believe that the raising of thoroughly and 
soundly grown men and women is of vastly 



4b WILEX AND HOW. 

more importance than the raising of calves and 
pigs; and that the teachings pointed out by 
theory, and afterwards proven 1 >y practice, ought 
to apply to their well-being in all things. 

Tin-: SAME LAWS APPLY TO BOTH. 

Spencer says: "But the fact is not to be 
disputed, and to which Ave had best reconcile 
ourselves, that man is subject to the same 
organic laws as inferior animals. No anatomist, 
no physiologist, n<> chemist, will for a moment 
hesitate to assert that the general principles that 
rule over the vital processes in animals equally 
rule over the vital processes in man. 11 

Thus the facts learned of animals have a 
practical value in the rearing of children. 

Do you know how to procreate a large, 
health)', 'active colt i Use the same rules, and 
you will have the same result in the child. Do 
you know what "cross" you should avoid in 
raising neat cattle { Avoid the same when you 
look for that " other parent " for your children. 

THINK BEFORE YOU GO "a COURTING." 

Do you know, when you have a kind of stock 
deficient in any one point, how to fill that defi- 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 49 

ciency \ Just remember that principle when 
you go " a courting." 

As we love our chidren, and value them more 
than we do our domestic animals ; as we find 
them entwined around our hearts, and centered 
in our inmost lives ; as we are wrapped up in 
them and their success, both in this life and in 
the "life which is to come," so should we be 
interested in anything that shall teach us how 
to make those we now have grow stronger, and 
withstand the hereditary tendencies they have 
received from us — that shall teach us how to 
avoid the entailment of these tendencies upon 
others. 

AVOIDING HEREDITARY TENDENCIES. 

By understanding the law of heritage, that 
" like begets like," we may avoid most of these 

evils. 

1st. If healthy ourselves, by not marrying any 
one unsound in body or mind. 

2d. By selecting a partner who is sound, 
and lias more than an average of strength 
where we are weak, or have a tendency to 
weakness. 

.">'/. By training and bringing np our children 



50 WHEN AND HOW. 

fully in accordance with the laws of health, from 
early infancy to full maturity. 

\tli. By giving very especial care to that pe- 
riod of life when a development of the disease 
inherited was shown in the parent. 

As an example, take a case of inherited con- 
sul nption. This disease usually lies dormant in 
the body until about the period of puberty, or 
soon after. To prevent a child who has inher- 
ited it from developing it, he should be clothed 
very warm, and wear flannel next to the skin ; 
lie should have all the pure, fresh air he can use, 
and taught to inhale all he can at each inspira- 
tion; he should have a diet composed largely 
of animal food; he should keep the secretions 
regular, and should not over-exercise — though 
this is far less injurious than indoor quiet. Out- 
door exercise, with a regularity and a steadiness 
in all the habits of life, will, with the above 
described care, in almost every case, prevent the 
disease from showing any activity — from being 
developed. 

A STORY OF GALEA'S PRESCRIPTION. 

To illustrate what may be done in the pro- 
creating of children, we quote the following 



HYGIENIC KNOWLEDGE. 51 

story of the celebrated Galen : " A Roman 
magistrate, little, ugly, and hunchbacked, had 
by his wife a child exactly resembling the statue 
of ^Esop. Frightened at the sight of this little 
monster, and fearful of becoming the father of a 
posterity so deformed, he went to consult Galen, 
the most distinguished physician of his time, 
who counseled him to place three statues t>f 
love around the conjugal bed, one at the foot 
and the other two on each side, in order that 
the eyes of his young spouse might be con- 
stantly feasted on these charaiing figures. The 
magistrate followed strictly the advise of the 
physician, and it is recorded that his wife bore 
him a child surpassing in beauty all his hopes." 

THE " HARDENING " PROCESS. 

Some parents think if they clothe their chil- 
dren scantily — let them run without shoes and 
with legs all bare, neck and arms exposed to all 
kinds of weather — they will "harden" them; 
and they will refer you to those who do so now, 
jiikI say, "they will endure very much more than 
the child who is warmly dressed." They do not 
consider that it is only the toughest that can 
bear this treatment; that the parents who thus 



52 WHEN AND HOW. 

care for their little ones destroy all the weak 
ones, as they cannot survive such "hardening;" 
they do not consider that only the strong, robust, 
and healthy by nature live under such treat- 
ment for any length of time, nor <!<> they think 
that when born with such constitutions they 
might be still larger and stronger it' properly 
cared for. 

But properly caring for them does not include 
shutting them up in the house, in a close room, 
with impure air to breathe. Such a care is the 
worst kind, and is a cause of a very large per- 
centage of our weak children. Keep their skins 
clean and sweet by frequent ablutions, clothe 
them warm, with flannel next their skin, with 
frequent changes, and then let them out in the 
pure out-door air, and teach them to breathe all 
they can. If people — if parents, present and 
prospective — would read and think more upon 
the rearing of healthy children, we should soon 
see a new development of health, and should 
not so often hear it said, " I am sick." 



CHAPTEK II 

Like Begets Like. 

WHAT A CHILD RECEIVES PRIOR TO BIRTH. 

AT birth a child has received all it ever 
will from its ancestry to make it what 
it will be, except what it receives in nutrition 
from its mother, and what it receives from 
father and mother in the form of instruction, 
both by precept and example. What it has 
thus received is but the result of those influ- 
ences which for years have been at work to 
determine the future welfare of the issue of 
those persons through whom the influences 
worked — influences that have been operating 
upon and through the ancestry of the child 
for years — yes, ages — prior to the union of 
those two elements that resulted in the crea- 
tion of a new being. 

53 



54 WHEN AND HOW. 

WHAT HEREDITARY INFLUENCES DETERMINE. 

These influences, operating so far back upon 
the ancestry, produce in the issue what we call 
" inheritance " — influences that have been at 
work to determine the personal, physical, men- 
tal, and moral future of the child ; to determine 
whether it shall be one of calm, enduring con- 
tent, of fiery contest, or of base yielding to the 
temptations of life ; whether it shall be one of 
sound health, of strong, powerful physique, or 
of disease and debility; whether it shall have a 
giant intellect, able to solve and compute the 
abstruse thoughts of science, or whether it will 
need a guiding hand to help it through this 
life. If they determine so much in this life, 
may we not ask: Will they not have some 
small weight in determining the child's status 
in the "spirit world"? These influences are 
made up of a multitude of unknown and, in 
some instances, unknowable quantities of in- 
extricably complicated functions, which will 
admit, of no certain solution in any single case, 
yet offering veiy valuable thoughts as to the 
errand result. 



LIKE BEGETS LIEE. 55 

PROCREATIONS BEAR ANCESTRAL IMPRESSIONS. 

Every procreation in this world bears an im- 
press of some kind of an ancestral speciality, be 
it of vegetable or animal life. We may not be 
able to see it, or even to comprehend it on its 
first emergence into life, for many peculiarities 
lay dormant through infancy, and are only 
shown in middle or mature life. This law of 
entailment, often of destructive tendency, some- 
times seems to be very arbitrary ; and in other 
instances it may be obviated, or at least modi- 
fied. Sometimes by great care a child may be 
saved from these evil tendencies ; at other times 
— as when it assails the brain, the instrument 
of the mind — it so effects the reason that they 
go without the guide and chart of intelligence, 
onward, by self-destruction, to the unexplored 
sea of a future life. 

ACQUIRED MORBID CONDITIONS ENTAILED. 

All acquired morbid conditions or diseases, or 
all those that arise in consequence of our own 
individual conduct, are as likely to be inherited as 
are those which descend from ancestral sources; 
such, for instance, as the habits of smoking and 



56 WHEN AND HOW. 

dram drinking. That children inherit the phys- 
ical constitution of their parents, its vices and 
its morbid tendencies, as well as its good quali- 
ties, has been observed from remote antiquity; 
and the law which governs this entailment has 
been studied by the savant for all these ages, to 
be understood only in part at the present time. 

CHILDREN "TAKE AFTER " BOTH PARENTS. 

Children do not at first sight always resemble 
the parents, as they have not inherited every 
point of characteristic that the parents had; and 
there must be two parents commingled in the 
child, which crossing will effectually prevent a 
perfect resemblance to either parent. They 
must partake of soine of the points of both; 
and this double ancestry forcibly acts to dimin- 
ish any one particularity of either parent, in its 
effects upon the child; one prominent attribute 
of the mind or body of one parent being coun- 
terbalanced by an opposing element obtained 
from the other. Thus we have the tendency 
that makes a variation. But when we have 
two prominent points, one in either parent, of 
similar kind, we expect to see it reproduced .in 
prominence in the child. 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 57 



TRANSMISSION. 

If we had always an invariable transmission, 
the people now living would be but a faithful 
duplicate of those of the past, and would have 
been no improvement upon them; nor would 
we expect the future generations to be an im- 
provement upon us of the present. The external 
relations — the home, the climate, habits, and 
education — all tend to prevent a perfect heredi- 
tary transmission. The hygienic treatment the 
parents have received will greatly influence the 
entailment of any morbid tendency ; as will the 
state of the health, vigor, and force of both 
parents at the time of the conception of the 
child. 

BEEEDEES PEOPAGATE ANY PECULIAEITY. 

Breeders will propagate any one peculiarity 
of animals that they chose, by selecting any 
couple that have a prominence of the peculiarity 
they wish to propagate, and allowing them to 
be united, and then uniting their issue with 
others of prominence in the same direction. By 
thus repeating, they will have a wonderful 
development of that peculiarity aimed at ; and 



58 when and how. 

it is thus that breeders succeed in obtaining a 
race of any one special characteristic. Examples 
are seen in the fine - wool sheep, and in the 
Morgan horses. It is thus that we can produce 
monsters at will, if our will is long enough, and 
it is often done in the rabbit, which breeds 
rapidly. 

MODES OF TRANSMISSION. 

There are two modes of transmission given 
by scientists — the invariable mode, and the 
variable mode. 

THE INVARIABLE MODE. 

The first, the invariable or permanent mode, 
is based upon the unchangeable law of Nature, 
as shown in the procreation of species or races, 
and their classes. Examples are seen in man, 
who invariably reproduces man ; and of the 
races, in the negro, who invariably reproduces 
the negro. The horse is sure to procreate the 
horse, and the pony horse only the pony horse ; 
and the dog will only give, as issue, the dog; 
nor will the shepherd dog procreate the grey- 
hound. All living beings, whether of the 
animal or of the vegetable kingdom, will 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 59 

reproduce only beings similar to themselves. 
Here we have Nature's law fixed and im- 
mutable. 

THE VARIABLE MODE. 

The variable mode is based upon a law of 
Nature which we believe to be equally un- 
changeable ; but fi'om the fact that man has not 
yet been able to fathom it, we see it as a varia- 
ble law. It transmits the physical, mental, and 
moral characteristics of ancestry, good or bad ; 
but in an augmented or lessened amount, with 
restrictions and intermissions, and sometimes 
with a total disappearance of a particular qual- 
ity. It is by this law that the perfections and 
imperfections, the moral aggregations or degra- 
dations, and the woful list of countless diseases, 
may or may not be entailed upon the issue — 
we cannot tell when or where; as to our know- 
ledge it has never been solved, and we see it 
only in the form of variations, without rule or 
number. Yet among all this unknown varia- 
tion valuable suggestions may be obtained; and 
we, as parents, should act in accordance with 
the knowledge we have. 



60 AVIIEN AND HOW. 

TYPES OF THE VARIABLE MODE. 

A French author gives types of variable 
inheritance like these: 1st. The "direct trans- 
mission," from parent to child. 2d. The "indi- 
rect transmission, 11 from collateral parents. 3d. 
" Atavism" from the ancestry of parents. ±th. 
"Hereditary influence," from a previous hus- 
band or wife. 



The first is most common, as seen in children 
who most usually resemble their parents in 
form, features, diseases, and in mental and moral 
tendencies. 

" INDIRECT TRANSMISSION." 

The "indirect mode" is where the "direct 
mode" does not occur, but the child has a 
strong resemblance to some of the "side rela- 
tions," as an uncle or an aunt. 



"Atavism" is shown where a child has a 
resemblance to a grandparent or a great-grand- 
parent; or perhaps the similarity may reach 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 61 

back for several generations. It is said to be 
most common among mongrels. 



" Hereditary influence " is the most extraordi- 
nary of Nature's jjhenornena — the child repre- 
senting neither father, mother, or ancestors, but 
is the image of the mother's first husband. 
Eminent physiologists have marked this "hered- 
itary influence" in many instances, and known 
this resemblance to be transmitted through sev- 
eral generations. A widow who has had chil- 
dren by her first husband marries again, and in 
due time a child is born unto her with some, 
and perhaps many, of the peculiarities of her 
former husband, deceased many years ago. 

THE ENDLESS EFFECT OF A SINGLE MARRIAGE. 

What results, then, hang upon the union of 
the sexes \ It may, and probably will, affect all 
the issue of that family to the remotest genera- 
tion. A man may entail disease upon children 
not his own. A woman's first husband, even 
though gone to the " spirit land," may exert an 
influence upon all of her issue. Ought not a 
marriage, that has such a powerful influence for 



62 WHEN AND HOW. 

good or evil upon the unborn — upon those 
who are brought into life unasked — to be a 
solemn contract I when it may affect not only 
the issue of that conjugal relation, but the issue 
of another future union ? 

THINK BEFORE YOU CONTRACT A MARRIAGE. 

Man ! seeking a mother to your prospective 
children, remember that you are acting for that 
which will reach as far, and endure as long, as 
your " family tree " shall continue to thrive. 

Woman ! sought as the wife of one who shall 
be the father of your children, step slowly — do 
not wed a stranger, nor one concerning whose 
mind, morals, or physical condition there can be 
a doubt. You are acting for, perhaps, a thous- 
and lives, whose health, character, and destiny 
depend upon the answer you give this man; 
and remember that those lives cannot choose 
whether they will or will not exist. 

MARRYING IN HASTE. 

Marry not in haste, or you and future gene- 
rations may repent at leisure. Love is right, 
but reason should be the autocrat upon the 
throne of the kingdom of marriage. "Zounds, 



T.TKE BEGETS LIKE. 03 

I love her, and I'll have her if I have to swim 
rivers for her," is too much our American idea 
of marriage. No matter what the obstacle, 
though it must affect not only us, but our 
children, and children's children for ever, "that 
gLl I am going to have." There is good in 
this determination, yet there would be much 
more good in it, if you would, Davy Crockett 
like, "be sure you're right" before you "go 
ahead." 

PHYSICAL ENTAILMENTS. 

The most common and fixed of the entailments 
are the physical, as the form, size, complexion, 
and visage; that is, the transmission of the char- 
acteristics of the body. These resemblances 
everybody has observed; they are the easiest 
seen, and the most usually commented upon. 

Then comes the entailment of the structure 
of the organs — the constitution; the different 
qualities or constituent parts of the economy — 
the temperament ; which last two determine 
certain conditions which relate to life, whether 
sound and strong, or feeble and sickly — 
whether long and full of vigor, or short and 
enervating. 



04 WHEN AND HOW. 

LONG-LIVED ANCESTRY. 

Children who are descendants of a long-lived 
ancestry, are possessed of a far greater chance 
of longevity than those whose ancestry were 

short-lived. 

A STRONG ANCESTRY. 

A strong, health)' parentage is sure to trans- 
mit some of its strength to its progeny, which 
have a far healthier and longer life-rate than the 
issue of debilitated bodies. We cannot raise a 
race-horse from two debilitated animals. When 
we want a powerful horse, or a fast horse, we 
seek it from a Bire and dam which have the 
physical points required in themselves; if we 
seek thus, we are (piite sure to find; and if we 
look for a large, powerful horse from a parent- 
age of the opposite kind, we are very sure to 
fail. What we here know of the horse we may 
know of mankind; for it is as strictly true in 
the one as in the other. If all men and women 
would act upon this law when contracting a 
marriage, our world Avould be peopled with a 
healthy, sound, strong race. 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 65 

COUNTERFEIT HUMAN BEINGS. 

We often meet — more often in the cities 
of our modern civilization — with numerous 
lean, pale, counterfeit human beings ; whose 
degeneration is to be laid to the enfeebled con- 
stitution of one or both parents, which was, in 
turn, entailed upon them by their parents ; or, 
perhaps, they may have acquired it by their 
own excesses. For we often find that intem- 
perance of the parents, voluntary abortion, too 
early or too frequent child-bearing, or a dispro- 
portion in the ages of the parents, results in 
these weak, pale ones. 

Let us not be blind to the fact, that a debili- 
tated husband and wife cannot produce robust 
children. 

BEAUTY CAN BE ENTAILED. 

Beauty of form and feature are capable of 
being perpetuated by the parent in the child, 
as well as deformity and ugliness. Among 
some of the ancients, kings were condemned to 
pay a fine for marrying enfeebled and delicate 
women; and the Grecians were very particular 
to hand down to their children anything in 



66 WHEN AND HOW. 

their constitutions that was especially desirable; 
as size, strength, good proportions, and beauty, 
and in most instances they were very successful. 
Beautiful features, as well as irregularities, are 
transmissable. We have all seen this so often 
that we fail to notice or think of it from its 
frequency. 

SPECIAL POINTS TRANSMISSABLE. 

The aquiline nose has been handed down 
from the families of Rome so long that we now 
call it the Roman nose. Low foreheads, the 
form of the mouth, the size and appearance 
of the eye, arc easily and surely transmissable, 
as well as large and small heads, long or short 
anus or legs, and large or small waists. The 
acquired small waist is quite as transmissable 
as that inherited — a fact which mothers 
would do well to remember when lacing their 
corsets. The union of small statures is a sure 
indice to the smallness of the next generation, 
as well as the union of large ones. In fact, 
all of man or woman's peculiarities of a phys- 
ical nature are liable to be transmitted to their 
children. 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 67 

DISEASE IS TRANSMISSABLE. 

From this fact, as well as from observation, 
we know that disease, or a tendency to disease, 
is transmissable. A child whose father or 
mother has had rheumatism is much more 
liable to it than one who descends from parents 
who never had it. We ask the question, 
when first Ave see a consumptive patient, if 
either of his parents died of consumption, and 
are happily disappointed if we hear a negative 
answer, as that is contrary to the rule. 

THE PHYSICIAN SEES EST THE CHILD THE HABITS 
AND SINS OF THE PARENTS. 

We, as physicians, are called to treat a case 
of skin-disease, and in certain forms we almost 
involuntarily ask which of the parents had this; 
or how old were you, mother, when you had 
this same humor? Again, we see a child suffer- 
ing from a terrible skin-disease, and invariably 
look at the father to see if he shows the effects 
of his sin; or ask him when he had syphilis. 
If lie is disposed to be lionest, he will admit 
it was before that child was conceived. We 
look thus (o the father, as In; is so much more 



fi8 WHEN AXI) HOW. 

likely to l>e the sinner, not but that the sins 
of the mother would be equally visited upon 
the child. 

Nervousness, neuralgia, StVita's dance, idiocy, 
and insanity are all surely transmissable. We 
do not say that the child of such a parent is sure 
to have it, hut they are two to one more likely 
to have it than the child of sound parents. Tn 
fact, .-ill disorders <>r diseases that thoroughly 
permeate the Bystem, so much bo as t«» be called 
constitutional diseases, arc quite likely to he 
entailed npon the issue; or, more correctly, a 
tendency t<> those diseases i- entailed. 

TRANSMISSION OF BRAIN-POWER. 

But, in addition to the transmission of the 
physical characteristics, the child may become 
heir t«» the intellect of his parentage, because, in 
the transmission of the physical conformation, 
the bodily health or disease, the temperament 
and constitution, we must necessarily transmit 
the conformation of the brain, which, in a man- 
ner, indicate- the quality of the character. 

Education and surroundings may, and wdl, 
probably, vary these inclinations; hut for all 
that, similar moral tastes and amhitions — 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 69 

similar powers of intellect — will be seen in the 
child. We cannot contest the transmission of 
the intellectual and moral peculiarities of the 
parent with any more success than we can the 
physical, which are more plainly seen. Parents 
who have a vigorous brain — a highly culti- 
vated intellect — generally procreate children 
of ability and intelligence — children capable 
of high culture; while parents of low mental 
vigor, and that uncultivated, almost never have 
children of intellectual strength. Strongly 
wicked minds, as well as good, sensible minds, 
are very apt to descend from parent to child. 

BAD HABITS MAY DESTROY GOOD ENTAILMENT. 

A child may be born of the best parentage — 
from the best moral and cerebral model, . and 
be of the highest intellectual promise, yet the 
treatment it receives while growing up, or some 
acquired habit, may impair all this natural force. 

HEREDITARY TENDENCY TO CRIME. 

There is a hereditary tendency to crime, as 
observation strongly proves. They may not 
commit the same crime, but the children of 
criminals are very much more likely to become 



70 WHEN AND HOW. 

partakers in some criminal act than those a\ li<> 
descend from parents who are moral in practice 
as well as in "outside theory." True, all the 
children of rude parents do not show it, hut all 
may, and would, if no outside influence should 
prevent. 

GOOD TEACHING MAY SAVE FROM ENTAILED IM- 
MORALITIES. 

A moral mother may instill so much of her 
teachings into her child after birth, especially 
when the child has inherited the moral instincts 
of the mother, a- t«> overbalance tin- immoral 
tendency inherited from a profligate father. 
But when a child has thus inherited the bad 
morals of the father, the mother has a very hard 
Lesson to teach her child, as all his inherent 
immorality is leading him astray from his good 
mothers teachings. 

FATHERS TO DAUGHTERS AND MOTHERS TO sons. 

Physically, the father will give, in procreation, 
the form and shape of the head and upper 
extremities to his daughters; of the body, espe- 
cially the hips and abdomen, to his sons. The 
opposite is true with the mother. She gives 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 71 

the form of the head and arms to the sons, and 
the form of the body, hips, and lower extremi- 
ties is given to the daughters. Thus in sons, 
who receive the head from the mother, we are 
more sure of finding good intellect when the 
mother's brain is vigorous; and daughters of 
fine intellectual powers when the father was a 
man of mental activity. 

During gestation it is believed that the 
mother's influence controls the moulding, and 
the influence received from the father controls 
the vitality ; and that the mother transmits her 
moral qualities to her sons, and the father trans- 
mits his to his daughters. Thus we do not 
often see sons who have mothers of truly solid 
moral worth, native and practical, standing 
upon a low moral scale ; and we can all recall 
instances where immoral fathers have daughters 
with Avhom we would not choose to be asso- 
ciated. Historical cases innumerable may be 
quoted, proving the foregoing thoughts to be 
true, but our space forbids quoting them. But 
it is a fact beyond dispute, that the usual trans 
mission is from father to daughter, and from 
mother to son; and often, where we see an 
apparent exception, we will find that the like- 



72 WHEN AND HOW. 

ness has only passed a generation or two, as a 
son inheriting from a grandmother, or a daughter 
from a grandfather — " atavism." 

PHYSICAL HEALTH MAY ENTAIL INTELLECTUAL 
POWEE. 

Many noble and worthy men have descended 
from a parentage that was not remarkable for 
great mental powers, but the parents must have 
been temperate in habits, and sound in mind 
and body, to have furnished the necessary ele- 
ments from one generation to another for future; 
greatness. If such elements existed, bad habits 
or unsoundness of the physical powers would 
have tended to destroy them; for good fruit 
will not grow on an unsound tree, nor is it 
possible for the weak bodies of a father and 
mother to give anything like greatness to their 
sons and daughters; certainly if both are weak 
and sickly. A sound scion must come from a 
sound root, in the animal as well as in the 
vegetable kingdom. 

HOW TO ENTAIL THE GOOD. 

But we have said enough to show "when" 
we are sure, and " when " we are liable to entail 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 73 

ourselves, or a part of ourselves, upon our chil- 
dren; let us now study "how" to entail the 
good, and not the bad, of our physical, intel- 
lectual, and moral characteristics. 

WHAT MONET DOES. 

Money so regulates all our affairs that we, as 
a people, are ready to use any effort to raise 
the race-horse — the fine- wool sheep — the best 
milch-cow; but we do not take heed in apply- 
ing these same efforts to the raising of our 
children. They come as they happen to, and 
go the same way. It is most wonderful that 
the brute, in this respect, has the advantage of 
man ; and still more so when we see that this 
advantage is given by man. 

DECEPTIONS USED TO " GET MARRIED. " 

A family desiring to have their children mar- 
ried, will never say to the world that they have 
diseases that will be entailed upon their issue, 
even when they know that they are transmis- 
sable; but, on the contrary, will use eveiy 
endeavor to hide their infirmities; and many 
are the young men and women who have, after 
marriage, awakened to the fact that their life- 



74 WHEN AND HOW. 

partner was infirm, and that they had trans- 
mitted those infirmities to their child. And 
yet others have found their children suffering 
and never knew that the cause was received 
from one of them, their parents; never knew 
that if they had married differently their chil- 
dren would have been saved these sorrows, and 
they would have kept for their own use the 
dollars paid for long doctor bills, nursing, etc. 

YOUNG MEN DECEIVED. 

Many are the scrofulous, leucorrhoeic, neuro- 
pathic, hysterical daughters that have married 
young men who did not know but what they 
were perfectly sound, never having thought to 
ask themselves, or any one else, if they could, 
and would, give them healthy children. 

YOUNG WOMEN DECEIVED. 

Many are rheumatic, syphilitic, furiously pas- 
sionate young men, with tobacco-chewing, drain- 
drinking habits, who have married young ladies 
who did not know what they were marrying. 
The solemn realities of life have shown them, 
when too late, the amount of deception used, 
and in endless sorrow they have suffered, often 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 75 

in silence; many are the watchful hours such 
wives have spent, in heart-broken solicitude, 
over the couch of a little sufferer, in part flesh 
of her flesh, but enough flesh of a degenerate 
husband's flesh to fill it with disease ; and many 
such wretched wives have never known that 
their child was suffering for the sins of its 
father. 

WE SHOULD HAVE LAWS TO PKEVENT THIS DE- 
CEPTION. 

We have laws to annul a contract in which 
deception is used in all instances, except when 
that deception is of a nature which makes only 
a child the principal sufferer. If we sell an 
unsound horse, the buyer has his remedy, but 
if an unsound woman is palmed upon us, one 
who will leave the stamp of her unsoundness 
upon our children, we must bear it; if a dis- 
eased man is able to deceive a woman into a 
union with him, she has no remedy — she must 
suffer all he may entail upon her children, 
and must care for the masses of disease that 
arc the result of his sins; and if she chance 
to murmur, will often only receive his brutal 
treatment. 



76 WHEN AND HOW. 



THE CHINESE LAW. 



In laws to release from such awful deception 
as this, the Chinese — an uncivilized people — 
are far in advance of our American nation, for 
they have the following : " If a father gives 
away in marriage a daughter afflicted with some 
capital ailment, without having previously in- 
formed the intended husband, the marriage may 
be annulled." 

A OATJSE FOR DIVORCE. 

The deception that unites a sound person in 
marriage with a seriously diseased person, is 
the most monstrous piece of fraud possible for 
humanity to practice, and it requires relief by 
statute law. It should be second only to 
adultery, as cause for divorce; no matter what 
the deception or disease is, only that it affects 
the innocent unborn. 

A STEP IN PREVENTING DISEASE. 

Then we say one step in obviating the entail- 
ment of disease upon the innocent child — one 
step towards making our people a stronger 
people physically — one step in the path "that 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 77 

prevention is "better than enre," will be laws 
to save ns from, the deception used to "get 
married." 

SOME AKE WILLING TO BE THUS CHEATED. 

But in some instances we see the sound, 
healthy young man — ■ with his eyes open — 
when no deception is practiced — when he 
knows that his intended has consumption — 
and knows that she is liable to entail it upon 
his children, who will still marry her, and she 
will accept the position of mother to his child. 
Young man ! think many times ere you do this. 
If you and your intended were the only ones to 
suffer, we would be silent; but in behalf of a 
helpless, suffering, soon -to -be -orphaned child, 
with a body Ml of the seeds of the same dis- 
ease, or, perhaps, a worse form of disease, we 
must say, as you will love your child, do not 
this thing; you cannot, if you use your reason 
instead of your passions. If we cannot educate 
people above such a marriage, ought we not to 
have laws that will forbid it 2 



78 WHEN AND HOW. 

SHOULD WE NOT STOP THE MAEKIAGE OF THOSE 
WHO WILL HAVE SICKLY ISSUE? 

Then would not a second step in this " pre- 
vention Letter than cure" be, a law forbidding 
the marriage of a person with transmissable 
disease, to a person of sound health, having no 
transmissable disease? If they are allowed to 
marry only those equally diseased as themselves, 
the diseased race would soon run out. 

Say you this is a hard law But you have 
laws against the use of a glandered stallion, 
and are not your children of as much worth as 
colts? We have laws against the accuplement 
of the same blood, as we think it deteriorates 
the offspring. 

Does the same blood act any more powerful 
than diseased blood ( 

WE CAN AND MUST EDUCATE ABOVE SUCH SICKLY 
UNIONS. 

Let us educate men and women above such 
a diseased union if we can— show them the 
wrong — the sin of bringing children into this 
life only to sutler with disease, and in a short 
time to die, causing sorrow to all who learned 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 79 

to love them. We, as a people, have not seen — 
have not known — that we were entailing so 
much disease and sorrow upon posterity. These 
thoughts are new to most of us, as applied to 
our children, and when we fully comprehend 
the facts as they are, we will not need laws to 
save our children. Then we repeat, what we 
want is "to know these things," to study, ob- 
serve, think, and talk them over. 

CHOOSE A HEALTHY MATE OR NONE. 

We claim that in choosing a mate, healthy 
physical qualities should be considered above 
anything else ; and when we do so consider 
them, Ave shall avoid launching children into 
this world with an endless assortment of trans- 
mitted disease. 

"BORN WELL" AND "LIVE WELL." 

Tli en we say, if the healthy would only 
marry the healthy, we would soon have little 
use for doctors among their descendants; espe- 
pecially if in addition to being "born well" 
tlicy would "live well.' 1 Also, we say, if the dis- 
eased will many, they should only marry those 
that are diseased, and thus save engrafting bad 



80 WHEN AND HOW 

health upon good health. Then we would have 
inherent health on one side, and inherent disease 
on the other. With Hygienic care, one will grow 
better; and if the othor does not, it will soon 
run out, from impossibility of procreation. 

THE GREAT QUESTION. 

But as these suggestions are not in accordance 
with what people will do, and we now have 
many unions between those who cannot trans- 
mit health to their issue ; the great question is, 
how shall we conduct ourselves so as to leave 
as little of disease with our children as possil >le \ 
We shall have other unions between those who 
are not wholly sound. Then it is our duty to 
stud)' that which is for the weal of future gene- 
rations, and we will do it, as we would save the 
innocent from suffering. 

IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Experience teaches, and almost every one 
knows, that deterioration or improvement of 
our domestic animals follows the choice of the 
animals we allow t< i be united together ; and 
every one ought to know that the same rules 
that apply to animals will apply to man. 



. 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 81 

DETERIORATED HUMAN BEINGS. 

Two deteriorated human beings are as sure 
to issue deteriorated offspring as two deterio- 
rated domestic animals, and visa versa. But 
one powerful, robust constitution may make up 
for the weakness of another in a measure, when 
the debilitated one is not too thoroughly per- 
meated with disease, and thus may procreate 
children that, with good Hygienic treatment, 
may not develop their inherent tendencies ; and 
with proper care during gestation, infancy, and 
youth, some satisfaction may be found in the 
first generation. If this rule be continued in 
the union that shall give the second generation, 
we will be quite sure of having children pos- 
sessing sufficient inherent strength to be reared 
in good health, by using the care that Hygiene 
directs, 

MARRY YOUR COMPLEMENTS. 

"Thus, the union of the lymphatic with a 
bilious temperament seems to be the best ac- 
oomplemenl to modify, or destroy, the scrofulous 
taint in one of the parties." 

If persons would always marry their oppo- 



82 WHEN AND HOW. 

sites it would be found to largely do away with 
these hereditary tendencies ; especially in those 
who were not too far gone to be united with 
any one. Give, as husbands to girls who have 
lucorrhoeal habits, or consumptive tendencies, 
men who are robust, sound, and rich in the 
sanguine temperament — of iron constitutions — 
able to act and do well their part. 

To men of debilitated stock — who are deli- 
cate, or have nervous disease — give, as wives, 
girls of strong, rich organizations, "full of the 
sap of genuine health. 1 ' If we would thus 
always marry contraries, we would soon have 
no call for laws to prevent those thoroughly 
diseased from marrying, for the morbid trans- 
mission would become extinct, and soon we 
should have a healthy generation coming up, 
that would be perpetuated in health through 
other generations, so long as they lived in 
accordance with Hygiene. Let all persons 
who has a hereditary taint in their blood, if 
they many at all, marry only those who have 
a direct opposite tendency. Let the scrofulous 
marry the bilious, the nervous mate with the 
cool unexcitable, the quick with the slow, the 
delicate skin with the tough skin, the dark 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE-. 83 

complexion with the light complexion, the nar- 
row chest with the wide chest, the small waist 
with the large waist, the contracted hip with 
the broad hip, and the weakly, if at all, with 
only the strongest ; and, above all, the syphilitic 
with — nobody; by which union of contraries 
we will have a " crossing " instead of a dupli- 
cation. If these contraries cannot be found 
among present acquaintances, an enlarged circle 
must be formed, so that opposites may know 
each other ; and other climates may be sought, 
where we will be more sure of finding the vari- 
eties of temperament, constitution, and health 
wanted. 

EAKLY AND LATE MARRIAGES. 

Too early marriages, and too late marriages, 
as well as too frequent procreations, are each a 
fruitful source of diseased entailments. They 
either partake of the weak end of life, or, by 
over-doing, keep the parents weak; from which 
weakness the bad is more sure of entailment 
thai] the good. The truth is, that which we 
obtain upon the limits of possibility will not be 
as perfeci as that obtained from a mean. 



84 WHEN AND HOW. 



INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE UPON ENTAILMENTS. 

Climate has much to do with regard to pro- 
creating strong children, and rearing them so 
they will not develop hereditary taints. Those 
who have a scrofulous or debilitated consti- 
tution — those who have the lymphatic tem- 
perament — and are almost sure to transmit 
it to their children, should seek the high and 
dry lands, where the atmosphere is very dry ; 
not humid with fogs, hut full of heaven's sun- 
light. They should avoid all cold climates, 
where too much of the forces of life must be 
expended in keeping up the temperature of the 
body. 

NorrcISHING FOOD. 

Another means of combating a hereditary 
taint of disease, is by living upon the most 
nourishing food — that food which is of easiest 
assimilation — such as animal foods, and bread 
not made from flour of wheat that has lost 
all its nerve -feeding phosphates in what is 
termed "middlings," fed to stock instead of 
man. 



LIKE BEGETS LIKE. 85 



CONFINEMENT OF CHILDREN OUT OF THE SUNLIGHT. 

Ill cities and villages the great source of 
scrofulous tendencies, that children have inher- 
ited or acquired, is in the close, hot-house con- 
finement that the child receives — away from 
pure air, where they are obliged to breathe 
impurities over and over again — shut out of 
the sunlight of heaven. They will grow up 
like vegetables in the cellar, perhaps rapidly 
enough, but pale, puny, debilitated, with none 
of the sap of health in them. To save from 
such a fate, open the doors and ventilate the 
rooms, and pull down the curtains, and throw 
back the blinds, that the sun may shine upon 
your child, and produce the change in its growth 
that only the sunlight can produce. 

We know we cannot raise a vegetable with- 
out sunshine, and Ave know that the more it has 
the better. Apply tliis same rule to your child, 
and lei linn have sun and air undiluted, and 
you may save him from developing those seeds 
of disease that you, Jus parents, have planted 
in his constitution, and for which you are largely 
responsible. 



86 WHEN AND HOW. 

NATURAL PLAY AND GYMNASTICS. 

Another means of preventing the develop- 
ment of inherent diseases is to be found in 
gymnastics, which are but a form of disciplined 
exercise ; and we would much rather the child 
would take the exercise as his instructive 
nature calls for it. We know the gymnasium 
is good, far better than quietude, and we 
firmly believe it has saved many from a state 
of debility; but the natural child-play of the 
young is as good for boys and girls as for colts 
and lambs. 

WHAT IS IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES. 

We will attempt, in the following pages, to 
give some rules for educating and developing 
the child into a full-grown man or woman 
physically, and to them we would refer for the 
mode of preventing the development of diseases 
already transmitted. 

ADVICE IN A MAEEIAGE. 

In this matter of maiTying right, we think 
much can be learned from good, sensible physi- 
cians, who have been thoroughly educated in 



LIKE BEGETS LEKE. 87 

early life; and since have been observers and 
students of Nature as they have daily seen it 
unfolded before them. We do not mean that 
class of doctors who know enough to cure all 
the diseases man is heir to, but men whom our 
worthy college professors have taught, exam- 
ined, and granted diplomas to — who have, after 
receiving their diplomas, not laid by the book, 
and thought they knew it all — who have not 
spent idle time in country stores, whittling dry 
goods boxes, or in city saloons playing billiards 
— but who have watched their patients closely, 
and spent all their spare time Avith their books, 
learning how to save humanity from the many 
ills of life. 

Young man or woman ! if you know such a 
doctor as this — and they are to be found with 
a tolerable frequency — and if you do not fully 
and intimately know "that one you are thinking 
of," no person in the world is better capable of 
advising you as to the probable results of the 
marriage than that doctor. He lias observed 
the good ;ui(l bad results following marriage 
man} times; do nol be afraid of him, but talk 
plainly with him, and he will not deceive you, 
nor betray your confidence. 



CHAPTER m. 

Pure Air and Respiration. 

THE VALUE OF PURE AIR TO THE CHILD. 

THAT the infant breathes from its first intro- 
duction into the atmosphere that surrounds 
our earth, all know ; 1 >ut how few consider the 
importance of that respiration which keeps that 
little one alive ! 

If it does not 1 >reathe, we know it will die ; 
and if it does breathe, we know it lives. Let 
us consider this function a little further. Any 
action of so much importance that with its use 
a child lives, and without its use it dies, must 
have some powerful effect upon its animal econ- 
omy ; and it cannot be that it makes no differ- 
ence how the child breathes, when it breathes, 
or what it breathes. 

The infant wants all the air it can use, from 



PUKE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 89 

the time it first begins to use it ; and it needs 
it, whether it is weak or strong ; and still more, 
it wants, needs, and must have it, pure, sweet, 
and fresh; full of the oxygen of life, if we 
would keep it healthy. 

Grown people want good, fresh ah', and will 
find their health largely decline when deprived 
of it. How much more must an infant, in its 
first struggle for life, be dependent upon it ? 

SUFFERING INFANTS. 

Nurses and mothers will often put their 
infants in close rooms, from which the oxygen 
has been used until they are themselves debili- 
tated and languid ; and they will not only put 
an infant in such a close room, but will wrap 
it up in blanket and bed, and thus nearly 
suffocate it, depriving it of all the air, except 
what it can draw through these wrappings. 

It is said that forty thousand children were 
destroyed in England, between 1080 and 1799, 
by being smothered or overlain by parents. 

Very true, children, especially small and quite 
young ones, must he kept warm; but it is not 
necessary to warmth that their faces and noses 
should be covered up so that air cannot have a 



90 WHEN AND HOW. 

ready access. Give them room to get their 
noses out where there is air that has not been 
breathed over again and again, until it has 
more bad than good in it — until it is foul with 
the exhalations of their bodies — not always 
kept as clean as they should be. 

don't cover the infant's nose. 

Many having the care of infants sleep with 
them, covering the infant's head up in bed, 
without a crack for fresh air to enter — all 
tucked up thus for fear the " dear creature will 
take cold," and then are always complaining 
that their "baby takes cold so easily." The 
truth is, no children will take cold so easily 
as those. Never having their quota of pure, 
fresh air to breathe, they are never robust 
and strong, but puny and weak, overcome by 
anything that would not even affect well 
children. 

They are partly asphyxiated from the want 
of enough i^ood, wholesome air — starved for 
oxygen. This keeps the skin of a dark purple 
color, not fresh and ruddy ; or if they are not 
dark and purple, they are pale, and of a tawny 
white, and without the endurance they should 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 91 

have. The first time they get a snuff of fresh 
air they " catch cold." 

OPEN THE, WINDOWS AND DOORS. 

Then, mothers! if you would have healthy 
children, and have them grow up in health, and 
make healthy, strong men and women, and be- 
come parents of healthy grandchildren to you, 
give your infants a free chance to breathe hea- 
ven's pure air; don't cover their noses in bed, 
in the crib, or in your lap ; and as they grow 
so as to creep and run around, don't be afraid 
they will look out of the door in the sunshine, 
where the winds of heaven have blown the bad 
all out of the atmosphere, but open a way to 
their breathing apparatus, and let the nose out 
— open the windows of your nurseries, and of 
your sleeping rooms, and theirs — open the win- 
dows and the doors of their play rooms, and let 
them step upon the ground, and sit upon it, 
mid roll upon it, and cut up all the gambols 
of which young animal life is capable; not only 
say they may, but if you find a child so much 
out of llif range of all animal nature as not 
to jump at the word may, say the)- must, and 
take them by the hand, or in your arms, and go 



92 WHEN AND HOW. 

with them, and watch the young life develop — 
the old, sallow look give place to the red 
cheek, and the puny, weak one changed to 
one of those tough, hardy sticks that can 
withstand any amount of the exciting causes 
of disease. 



This being out of doors in the pure air will 
make them "black and tan; 11 their faces will 
not have that immaculate whiteness which the 
neighbors — seeing more with an eye for beauty 
than health — spoke of as so handsome — such 
a clear skin. 

HEALTH, AND NO DOCTOR BILLS, BEST. 

But do we choose health and the beauty of 
robustness, or diseased constitutions and the 
beauty of feebleness \ Do we prefer to pay the 
butcher or the doctor? To which will Ave open 
< »ur pocket-books the most readily ; an account 
reading, "To 10 lbs. beef," or to an account 
reading, "To prescriptions and medicines"? 

All prefer to pay the butcher, with health 
and sound sleep, to paying the doctor, though 
he may save life; for with what you call him 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 93 

to remove, comes pain and suffering with its 
watchfulness. 

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE. 

Then, if we choose health and its accompani- 
ments, we should tiy so to guard our children's 
constitutions that they may strengthen, and 
become more enduring. Your honest family 
physician will tell you that you can prevent 
more of the diseases incident to childhood, espe- 
cially those that arise from breathing impure 
ah-, than he can cure. 

SHORT GRAVES NOT PROVIDENTIAL. 

Look at the number of short graves in all our 
cemeteries, and tell us whose fault is all this. 
Do not say "it is a wise Providence;" that "His 
ways are not our ways ; " that " these little ones 
were too good for this wicked world" — for 
God's providence has never had anything to do 
with it. 

Do you think that He would call little chil- 
dren into this world to suffer, and only suffer, 
and then call them immediately out again? 
No! he had a work for them to do, but through 
our carelessness and ignorance they \v r ere — if 



94 WHEN AND HOW. 

born without inherited disease — slaughtered; 
permitted to live without air pure and sweet 

— the freest and most abundant of the neces- 
saries of this life — and from this cause they 
passed aw 7 ay. 

TOO GOOD FOR EARTH ! NO. 

Do not tell us they were too good for earth, 
w 7 here a good example is so much needed. Such 
a goodness is only that which arises from a 
physical weakness, too feeble to do any wrong 

— only a negative goodness. They had not 
vitality nor life enough to do a wrong act or a 
right one, only as they received outside impulses. 
Show us a truly bad boy — in accordance with 
the usual application of the term bad — and we 
will show you one who has physical stamina — 
who can withstand the hard knocks of this life. 

PARENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD'S HEALTH. 

No ! those are phrases, or expressions, to ease 
a sorrow ; but they will not remove the resj >on- 
sibility from the shoulders of parents and guar- 
dians. They are required, and ever will be, to 
give their children a fall and perfect develop- 
ment of physique. 



PUKE AIE A2ZD RESPIRATION. 95 

CO^IPOSITION OF PUEE AIE. 

Pure air, in which we are now so much inter- 
ested, is easy to be found, unless man has been 
the cause of its impurity, directly or indirectly. 
Its composition, when pure, is oxygen one part 
to nitrogen four parts ; and it is a mixture, not 
a chemical union. With these we find a small 
amount of carbonic acid, varying from five to 
six parts in ten thousand ; and there are some 
traces of other substances. Watery vapor is 
found mixed, in varying proportions, in the 
atmosphere; more abundant near large bodies 
of water, and quite sparsely on the inlands, as 
the great American plains; varying, also, with 
the seasons of the year. 

PUEE AIE GrVES VIGOE. 

Such an atmosphere as this will support 
life, when we are where enough of it is 
inhaled. Then we may feel that every inspi- 
ration will cany new vigor to our physical 
systems, and to our minds; and that each 
expiration will remove poisonous accumulations 
from our blood. 

U we, grown up people, so much need this 



96 WHEN AND HOW. 

fresh, pure air — who are only replenishing the 
waste of our bodies with nutrition — how much 
more does the infant or child need it, who is 
not only replenishing but growing ? Here not 
only the worn-out must be removed, but all the 
waste of their extra food for growth, after the 
nutrition is taken from it, is to be removed; 
the infant is making more blood, according 
to its size, than the adult; and none of it 
is good until it comes in contact with the 
air in the lungs, and receives its amount of 
oxygen. This oxygen is the only part of the 
air of special service to us, and this we cannot 
live without. 

HOW THE BLOOD IS KEPT PUKE. 

All tlic venous blood in the body is very 
rapidly brought to the lungs, so loaded with 
carbonic acid as to be unfit for use; and this 
carbonic acid is here exchanged for oxygen, 
which exchange has made the blood again pure 
arterial blood— fit to go out again with its load 
of nutritious matter, to exchange a particle here 
and there for a particle of that which is of no 
further use to the animal economy. 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 97 

THE 131 PURITIES IN THE AIR. 

Air is made unfit for use — made foul and 
impure — by having gases, vapors, and organic 
materials mixed with it, and by having an 
undue proportion of either of its normal ele- 
ments. But the most important of the impuri- 
ties — in a Hygienic point of view — are those 
that arise from the habitations and workshops 
of men, and from the nearness of our homes to 
the offal and the excretions of our domestic 
animals. 

We are continually exposed to those influ- 
ences, and yet they are most completely subject 
to our control. 

ALL IMPURITIES NOT DETECTED BY THE SENSES. 

Man)" impure elements are not detected by 
the senses; we can neither taste, smell, see, nor 
feel them; especially if we have been for some 
time subject to their influence, and that influence 
has been gradual in approach or accumulation. 

All know that the effluvia of a slop-hole or 

Sewer is readily smelt when we are first brought 

near it, but that if we are for some time under 

its influence the sensibility becomes blunted — 

5 



98 WHEN AND HOW. 

our nasal organs fail to respond to the disagree- 
able odors. 

MOST DANGEROUS WHEN NOT KNOWN. 

But we should ever remember that our sys- 
tems do not fail to be contaminated by poisons, 
though our senses fail to perceive those poisons. 
By forgetting this fact we neglect to remove 
these nuisances. There is no more false logic 
than that which says that because our senses 
do not perceive a foul emanation, our systems 
have so accommodated themselves to its effects 
that it does not hurt us. On the contrary, it 
lias «» affected us that it has become a part and 
parcel of our physical selves, and we are so 
much weaker, so much less able to withstand an 
exciting cause of disease. 

EASY TO GUARD AGAINST PLAIN IMPURITIES. 

Every-day common-sense is sufficient to guard 
us against plain causes of injury and disease; 
but an intelligence founded upon science is 
needed to protect us from the subtle influences 
that arise here and there to vitiate our con- 
stitutions. 

Infants and children have to be guarded 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 99 

against all the causes of disease; as well the 
obvious as those more difficult of appreciation. 
They are growing, and from the fact of growing 
— and thus assimilating to their own use more 
of that which they receive into their bodies — 
how very important it is, that all they receive 
should be pure and wholesome. 

CARBONIC ACID GAS. 

Carbonic acid gas, one of the normal elements 
in the air, in a very small proportion, is often 
very abundant and very injurious. It is the 
same gas that destroys life when shut up in 
a close room, where there is a charcoal fire 
burning. The gas is formed rapidly by burn- 
ing charcoal, and in a short time enough has 
collected to render the occupant of the room 
insensible ; and in this state they soon pass 
away from life. 

A few persons lose their lives in this way; 
but many, very many, lose their lives, and if not 
their lives, their health, by inhaling this gas in 
small quantities in close, unventilated living- 
rooms, nurseries, and sleeping-rooms. Though 
i his process is slow, producing its effects so 
gradually as to be hardly perceivable, yet it is 



100 WHEN ANI> HOW. 

sure. These close, unventilated rooms, in which 
children are often kept, are so many manufac- 
tories of disease; and are as sure to produce 
a debilitated constitution— a constitution with- 
out the stamina to withstand disease — as a 
charcoal fire is to destroy the life of the 
person who occupies a close room where one 
is burning. 

This union of carbon and oxygen is going on 
iu our bodies, and in the bodies of our chil- 
dren, just as we see it in the burning fire — 
only, of course, not as rapidly — and, as before 
said, the result is carbonic acid gas, which, in 
the living being, is thrown off by the lungs in 
the act of breathing, and from the skin. 

CLOSE ROOMS SHOULD NOT BE SLEPT IN. 

In the close room we are breathing the air 
over again and again ; uniting its oxygen with 
carbon in our bodies, and then throwing it out 
again by the lungs; thus using up the oxygen 
until there is not enough left to support life 
fully ; and then, in the child more than in the 
adult, we have the weak, debilitated consti- 
tution. 

So sure as we continue to let our children 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 101 

sleep in these little, close rooms, or give tlieru 
unventilated rooms for their play or studies, 
they will not be healthly and strong. Grown 
people, sleeping in these poison-generating rooms, 
iind themselves dull and depressed, languid and 
discontended ; but children are cross and sick, 
pale and listless, with poor appetites and foul 
breath. 

DOCTORS SHOULD PREVENT AS WELL AS CITRE 
DISEASE. 

Physicians often find children thus, and still 
parents do not see it, much less see the cause 
of it. And often the doctor — who may be one 
who thinks only of a prescription of medicine 
to cure — does not see the cause. He sees the 
trouble, and it must be at once attended to; but 
he fails to go to the root of the evil, and the 
cause is not found. If the child is cured, it is 
cured but to go back to the old habit of living 
and sleeping, and breathing foul air, and soon 
it is sick the same way again. 

Thus the life of the child is passed, until its 
constitution is so much impaired that it suffers 
constantly through a short life. 



102 WHEN" AND HOW. 

THE BURNING OF LIGHTS IN ROOMS. 

The burning of one gas burner, or of a single 
lamp, in a room, is as injurious to the purity 
of the atmosphere as the introduction of an- 
other person, and should be counted as one 
person when we are arranging the number of 
persons to occupy a room, or planning for 
ventilation. 

Remember that all combustion produces car- 
bonic acid, whether it be by fire in the stove — 
where the gas is carried off through the pipe — 
by the gas burner, or by the same process in 
our bodies. 

THE WORST IMPURITY FOUND IN THE AIR. 

But one of the most common of the atmos- 
pheric impurities is that which arises from our 
bodies — the exhalations from the lungs and 
skin in the form of organic matter, thrown off 
insensibly. It is this that we smell when we 
open the close sleeping-room in the morning. 
This is the effluvia that has greeted our nasal 
organs when Ave have opened the children's 
fleeping-room door in the morning, and been 
astonished that they could sleep in such a smell 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 103 

so late in the morning, when everything out 
of doors was so sweet and pure. 

IT WILL MAKE CHILDREN SLEEPY. 

Perhaps we did not know that this impurity 
that has been accumulating in their room all 
night, was just what would make them sleepy. 

THEY ARE THE MOST INJURIOUS. 

Probably these organic impurities, and those 
arising from sinks, slop-holes, and sewers, are 
the most injurious in their effects upon children 
of any of the impurities of the atmosphere. 
Children are more under their influence, as they 
are from the necessities of their lives more at 
home, and thus more exposed to their effects 
than grown persons, who are often out in the 
open air. 

THEY WILL SURELY PREDISPOSE TO DISEASE. 

We do not propose to speak of the chemical 
properties of these organic impurities. It is 
quite sufficient that we know them to be poi- 
sonous, and that breathing them for a long 
time, or often for a short time, will be sure to 
weaken the constitution of children, if it does 



104 WHEN AND HOW. 

not directly make them sick — will predispose 
to disease so they cannot ward off an exciting 
cause like those who are full of vitality. 

HOW TO PROVE THE AIR IMPURE. 

To prove that it is impure, pass the air from 
a sewer, slop-hole, or close room, for a short 
time through a few gallons of good, pine water, 
such as you would willingly drink, and after 
this foul air has only passed through this water, 
and for only a short time, take a glass of it and 
taste it if you can. You will find this a very 
difficult thing to do, for your eyes will tell you 
it is foul water, and your nose will in a moment 
learn that its stench is unbearable, and they, 
true sentinels to the mouth, will not let you be 
deceived into tasting it. 

THE EFFECT UPON THE WATER SHOWS THE EFFECT 
UPON THE CHILD. 

But why has it become foul? The impure air 
has only passed through it, and you have been 
using this same air in the same way; that is, 
passing it through your lungs, and through the 
lungs of your children, not only for a short time, 
but all night, and perhaps every night for years. 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 105 

Let the change that this foul air has pro- 
duced upon the water, illustrate its effect upon 
the living body; and not only teach us that the 
air is foul, but teach us that it equally affects 
our physical system ; that our blood, and the 
blood of our children, will be contaminated and 
rendered impure by breathing it. 

DID MOTHERS KNOW. 

Did mothers know that they were laying the 
seeds of disease deep in the constitutions of their 
children, and thus shortening their lives, as well 
as making them suffer while they do live, by 
thus letting them breathe impure air, they 
would keep their nurseries and sleeping-rooms 
well ventilated, and their children would have 
only the purest and sweetest air to breathe. 

])II) FATHERS KNOW. 

Did fathers only know that the foul sink, 
sewer, and slop-hole were sending poisons into 
their homes that would prostrate their children 
on beds of pain and sickness, and make long 
and large doctor bills for them to pay, they 
would not ivst until they were removed. 
Fathers and mothers fail here because they are 



106 WHEN AND HOW. 

not taught better — because they do not know 
the results. 

FOUL CELLARS. 

Cellars are often the sources of foul air aris- 
ing from want of ventilation — the same air 
remaining in them for a long time; and from 
decaying vegetables, and sometimes from decay- 
ing animal matter. Keep them ventilated Bum- 
mer and winter; and it can be done sufficiently 
in the coldest season without making them too 
cold to keep fruit or vegetables. Do not keep 
anything in the cellar, or under the house, that 
is not perfectly sweet and wholesome; as all 
foul emanations from thence will pass through 
every room in the house. 

THE BAD EFFECTS OF BREATHING QtFURE AIR 
ARE TNT A I LED. 

Breathing impure air is a source of much 
sickness among grown people, who i^vt it in the 
workshops as well as in their residences. The 
standard of health in men and women, who 
would otherwise be healthy, is often so far 
reduced by it that they are never parents of 
quite healthy children; but leave their inlirmi- 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 107 

ties stamped upon their issue. Iu the school- 
room we find a very frequent and effective result 
of breathing confined atmosphere, in debilitated 
scholars, without ambition or energy, 

IT PRODUCES SCROFULA AND CONSUMPTION. 

Allow the child to breathe an atmosphere like 
that just described, filled with carbonic acid gas 
and foul organic exhalations from the body, for a 
few hours out of every twenty-four, and though 
you give him good food and enough of it, and 
though you give him good clothing and keep 
him warm, yet will the vital power be so much 
lowered as to provoke many disorders; but 
more especially and surely that degeneracy of 
the system, and imperfect and perverted form 
of nutrition or action of the nutritive function, 
called scrofula. 

An eminent French physician says: "That 
the repeated respiration of the same atmosphere 
is a primary and efficient cause of scrofula, and 
that if there be entirely pure air, there may be 
bad food, bad clothing, and want of cleanliness, 
but that scrofula cannot exist." 



108 WHEN AND HOW. 

WHY COUNTRY CHILDREN BECOME SCROFULOUS. 

It will be found, upon a full examination, that 
scrofula is caused by bad ventilatien — In- 
breathing vitiated air; and that it is not neces- 
sary that this kind of breathing should be pro- 
longed either. A few hours each day for a short 
time will do the work for the child. Here we 
sec why children living in the country, spending 
most of their time in the open air during the 
summer months, become affected with a scrofu- 
lous disease. It is because they spend a few 
of every twenty-four hours in a close school- 
room; or their bed-rooms do not receive the full 
amount of air required to keep them free from 
foul excretions. 

"DREAD RUDER OF THE PALE HOESE" CONSUMP- 
TION". 

When this scrofulous habit becomes localized 
upon the hums, we have that "dread rider of 
the pale horse' 1 we eall consumption. It forms 
tubercles — which are masses, large or small, 
of unorganized, coagulated albumen — abortive 
attempts of an imperfect nutrition. 

As the lungs are the first organs to meet, 



PUKE ALU AM) KESPLRATION. 109 

directly, this impure air, it does not seem strange 
that they should be immediately and surely 
affected, as in consumption ; and as the blood is 
not purified as it would be by wholesome air, 
we can easily see that through its impurities the 
whole body will be deranged. 

IT IS OFTEN ENTAILED. 

By the accumulation of these impurities in 
the blood, we have a general scrofulous habit 
acquired, which is made more dreadful from the 
fact that the child who has acquired it is not 
only to suffer itself, but if it lives to become a 
parent, its children wall inherit the scrofulous 
cachexy, and theirs inherit again, until the race 
dies out. 

These thoughts apply to healthy children — 
to those who do not inherit a diseased constitu- 
tion, or a tendency to disease. If these sound, 
well children are thus easily affected, how will 
those who are the offspring of vitiated constitu- 
tions — those having hardly vitality enough to 
live under the most favorable circumstances — 
how will they be affected by their depressing 
influences % 



110 WHEN AND HOW. 

IMPURE AIR WILL RAPIDLY DEVELOP INHERITED 
DISEASE. 

These weak tendencies will be rapidly devel- 
oped by impurities in the air. The want of 
oxygen will help to bring out all those hidden 
seeds that lay dormant under the influence of 
fall respiration and adequate nutrition, and de- 
velop them into open disease. Many children 
who have inherited a consumptive habit, have 
very rapidly passed to a fatal termination, by 
bad and unhealthy surroundings ; and chief 
among these are those same faults of respiration. 
All who have observed upon these points, know 
that good, pure air, constantly breathed, is one 
of the surest preventions to a development of 
a diseased habit, especially if the cachexy is 
scrofulous. 

PURE AIR PREDISPOSES TO CHEERFULNESS. 

In leaving this part of the subject we would 
quote from Dr. Kay. He says: "In school or 
hospital, or other considerable assemblage of 
people, the purity of the air may be pretty 
accurately measured by the amount of cheerful- 
ness, activity, and lively interest that pervades 



PURE ALR AND RESPIRATION. Ill 

it; and yet so little do people think or care 
about this subject, that under existing arrange- 
ments there are very few who are not every day 
of their lives inspiring more or less highly 
vitiated air. The listlessness and stupidity of 
students, and especially of children confined in 
the school-room, are often due to the bad state 
of the air they breathe. Using the brain in a 
vitiated atmosphere is like working with a 
blunted instrument, and the effect, of course, 
must be aggravated when the inexperienced are 
first learning to use the instrument. 1 ' 

WANT OF PURE ATR MAKES DISEASE WORSE. 

Improper ventilation increases the severity of 
all diseases, and they are much oftener fatal; 
and when that is avoided, patients have a slow 
convalescence; and often complications arise 
that will greatly lengthen an illness. This fact 
is ol't en seen in febrile diseases, as the fevers of 
this country — viz., typhus, typhoid, and bilious; 
and it is often seen that cases of scarlet fever, 
measels, and sniall-pox, will convalesce sooner 
and more favorably if the sick-chamber has been 
constantly filled with fresh air. 



112 WHEN AND HOW. 



IT MAKES CONTAGIONS DOUBLY CONTAGIOUS. 

All contagious diseases are rendered doubly 
so when the exhalations of the sick body are 
accumulated in the room until the odor, and 
particles of refuse epidemics, are seen and smelt 
all over the house, when the door is opened for 
a moment, and the condensed poison allowed to 
escape from its confinement. 

WE MI ST PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE LOCATION 
OF OUE HOMES AND SCHOOL-HOUSES AND THEIR 
VENTILATION. 

That we may have a purer atmosphere in our 
dwellings, in our living-rooms, and in our nur- 
series, and in the bed-chambers — that the exha- 
lations from our children in their school-rooms 
maybe diffused instead of being concentrated — 
we must pay more attention to the location of 
our homes, and to the places where we congre- 
orate our coming men and women for t]\c attain- 
ment of science; and when we have the places 
well located, Ave must see that every room in 
these buildings is perfectly ventilated. Ventila- 
tion in our stoves, chimneys, and in the walls 
of our rooms, is of no benefit unless we use it ; 



PUKE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 113 

and we should not expect our children to think 
and attend to this, even though they are old 
enough. 

HOW WE CAN VENTILATE ANY ROOM. 

A dissertation upon the mechanics of ventila- 
tion is not the aim of this essay ; it is only to 
impress its importance, and show the necessity 
of having pure air to breathe if we would be 
healthy. But any room may be ventilated by 
opening the doors or windows. Dropping the 
upper sash and raising the lower will do it 
very well. These should not be so opened 
as to pass a current of air directly upon our 
persons. These currents of air are sure " givers 
of colds." Sleeping - rooms are better venti- 
lated by this arrangement of a window in an 
adjoining room, with a door open from it to the 
bed-room. 

UOW TO VENTILATE IN BUILDING. 

In building we should so arrange our ventila 
fcion, if possible, that fresh air may be admitted 
after being warmed; or, taken from the purest 
sides of the house, it should be warmed as it 
comes into the room, and an equal sized opening 



114 WHEN AND HOW. 

should be made for the escape of the air of the 
room as fast as it is supplied with fresh air. 
This process will keep the carbonic acid gas, and 
organic impurities, diluted to a point so low as 
not to be injurious, and still the temperature of 
the room is kept the same, which is of great 
importance. Always remember that lights in a 
room are as effectual in using up the oxygen 
of the air, and producing carbonic acid gas, as 
persons are ; and we must count every burning 
light as equal to the addition of one person to 
the room. 



"the old fire-place." 



How common to hear it said, "The old fire- 
place is the best fire, and that they are much 
more healthy — that these stoves make us dull 
and stupid." 

This is all true; but it is not the fire-place on 
the one hand, or the stove on the other, that 
produces these different effects, but it is the 
difference of ventilation. The open fire carries 
all the impurities in the room up chimney, and 
the bad air thus removed is replaced by fresh 
out-door air. 



PURE AIE AND RESPIRATION. 115 



THE CLOSED STOVE. 

The closed stove does not do this — it is not a 
good ventilator. We build a fire in the stove 
— sit down beside it — no doors or windows 
being opened — the room all finished up tight, 
and soon we are sleepy and stupid — cannot 
think or act as we would. Our children kept 
in this room are cross and fretful, and wear a 
dull, sallow look; not the red flush of health; 
and soon — if not often let out of these accumu- 
lated impurities — not only look sick, but are 
sick in fact. Give these rooms pure air, and the 
stove is as good as the open fire. 

INHALE ALL THE PURE AIR YOU CAN. 

There is another point in this want of good 
air to be thought of, and that is that we use 
enough of it when we do have it. 

It is not a panacea for our ills to have air in 
abundance — jmre as the mountains and prairies 
can make it — unless we use it — use enough of 
it — an abundance of it. It is not like our food 
in this respect, we cannot take too much of it; 
tin- more the better; and after we have taken all 
we think we can, a little more will do no harm. 



116 WHEN AND HOW. 



CHILDREN SHOULD STAND ERECT. 

Then teach your children to stand erect as 
Nature made them to stand, and hold up their 
heads, throw back their shoulders, and expand 
their lungs by taking in again and again, all 
day and all night, and every day and night in 
the year, all the pure air their lungs will hold 
when thus expanded. Do not be afraid they 
will get too much of it. It will do no harm, 
but it will make them strong, sound, and 
vigorous. 

PURE AIR THE FREE GIFT OF GOD. 

It is a free gift of God to man; the freest 
necessity of this life ; " without money and 
without price." 

In fact it is the only necessity of this life — 
the only article that we cannot do without — 
that is furnished to us and our children, where- 
ever we may be, simply by inhaling it. All we 
have to do is to draw it into our lungs, and 
throw it out again ; which are acts that we 
cannot help doing. There is no earning it — no 
going- after it — it is ever at hand where we can 
partake. Unless we shut it in, so it cannot be 



PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 117 

changed by mixing with other air, and thus 
become diluted, it is pure and wholesome, except 
when it comes directly from some place of foul- 
ness. Can we believe that man will take, or 
use, so little of it as to make it impure by over 
use; especially when these impurities will plant 
the seeds of death in us and our families ? Per- 
haps its freeness causes us to think it valueless, 
and we prize it as we do some other things — 
" according to their cost." 

THE EFFECT OF STOOPING. 

Children, and grown people, are too apt to 
stoop, and throw their shoulders forward, and 
sink the chest in, thus compressing the lungs 
until they will not hold air enough for aerating 
the blood. We ought, in the middle of life, to 
take about seventeen respirations a minute, of 
from one pint to one quart at each inhalation; 
and children should use, in proportion to their 
size and age, more than the mature person. 

CORSETS A'JSD TIGHT WAIST BANDS. 

Others bind their lungs up so closely, with 
stays around the waist and chest, thai they can- 
not inspire air enough; and so go through lite, 



118 WHEN AND HOW. 

short to them, only half breathing. It is truly 
very fortunate that children have not been as 
often "tight laced" as those "children of larger 
growth," who use anything that lessens the size 
of the chest, and so reduces the amount of air 
breathed, proving themselves at least only chil- 
dren in reason. If we have suffered from this 
compression when children, it has been still 
worse for us. Though children are usually free 
from the effects of tight lacing on their own 
persons, they are very much affected by this 
compression used by the mothers, which has 
been entailed upon them in the form of a small 
waist, which now, through the freaks of fashion, 
is unfashionable. 

Now that "dame fashion" has declared a large 
waist the "form of beauty," we shall not need 
to preach against tight lacing any longer. May 
it never change back ; and may the small waists 
and chests of our children expand to the fullest 
requirements of so good a fashion. Dress them 
loosely around the waist, and give the bust free 
and full chance to play and expand; and we 
will soon see our child — the lovely little girl — 
with a waist and bust that will make many men 
have a " heart affection." 






PURE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 119 

How thankful we ought to be that small 
waists are no longer the fashion. 

BOLD UPON HIGH GROUND. 

For the health of families — especially of the 
children — we would have our residences upon 
the high lands; above the low grounds where 
we find atmospheric impurities most abundant. 
Nothing is more common than to see homes built 
in poor locations, when good ones are near by, 
because the builder did not think of the differ- 
ence it would make in the health of its occupants. 

THICK TREES TOO NEAR A HOUSE. 

Trees too near a house are not healthy, for 
they keep the sunshine out, and retain too much 
of the moisture; but trees a little away from 
the house, a distance only sufficient to let the 
sun in, arc very healthy. 

We should not live in houses standing near 
low, swampy grounds, where vegetation is, or 
baa been, rank, for it will decay fast; and there 
we have another kind of atmospheric impurity, 
viz., that arising from decaying vegetables. This 
is the miasma that generates u fever and ague,'J 

and this class of diseases. 



120 WHEN AND HOW. 

IN AGUE DISTRICTS LIVE HIGH AND SLEEP UP 
STAIRS. 

On all the newly opened lands of our Western 
domain, we should live on the higher lands, and 
always sleep up stairs — keep a lire morning 
and evening, all the time when the season is 
not so warm that Ave cannot bear it ; and if we 
would lie doubly cautious, keep a fire all night. 
We should also be very sure to keep out of the 
evening and morning dews. 

If we will follow these rules, we may feel 
quite sure of escaping all miasmatic diseases. 
A belt of timber on the side of the house 
from which the prevailing winds come, yet 
not near enough to shade it, will assist in 
keeping the children free from miasma and its 
consequences. 

SEWERAGE AND WATER-CLOSETS. 

All sewerage should be so constructed as to 
prevent any of the foul air from regurgitating 
1 >ack into houses or rooms, or into their vicinity. 
All water-closets should be kept clean, and free 
from foul odors, by the use of charcoal, pow- 
dered, and thrown in ; or by some of the many 



PUKE AIR AND RESPIRATION. 121 

disinfectants, such as permanganate of potash, 
sulphate of iron, or chloride of lime, etc. 

When there is the least "bad smell" from 
any of the various sinks of corruption and dis- 
ease, these disinfectants should l>e used; but 
first clean them out thoroughly. Many, very 
many children's lives, and much sickness, might 
have been saved had- this rule been followed. 
Deep pits should not be sunk in the earth too 
near the wells from which we use water — when 
these pits are to be used as vaults for water- 
closets — for there is often a communication 
established between them. This connection 
may be from long distance, in a sandy or grav- 
elly soil, and is a terrible source of disease. 

TOO MOIST ATMOSPHERE. 

The air may be filled with more moisture 
than is healthy, and it frequently is in very wet 
seasons, and near large bodies of water, as on 
the sea coast or on the borders of our lakes. 
I > 1 1 1 this moisture is variable, and to a good 
constitution will not do harm. In very warm 
weather too much moisture in the air is .quite 
debilitating, and in wet and warm seasons we 

have prevailing epidemics. Children of scrofu- 



122 WHEN AND HOW. 

Ions constitutions are the ones who will he most 
affected by a moist atmosphere, and such chil- 
dren should not be kept on the sea coast, or in 
low, moist localities, but should be immediately 
taken where the air is dry and invigorating. 

WHERE DRY ATMOSPHERE IS FOUND. 

This atmosphere is found in highly elevated 
countries, distant from the ocean or inland seas. 
Such an atmosphere, with Hygienic treatment, 
will often raise, and make quite healthy, chil- 
dren of strong scrofulous and tuberculous ten- 
dencies — those who inherit it from both parents. 
A cold and damp atmosphere is very chilling, 
reducing the vitality very low, by carrying away 
the warmth of the body faster than it can be 
manufactured, checking the prespiration and 
increasing the action of the mucous membrane, 
which produces bronchitis, catarrh, or a class of 
female disorders — and all the more certainly 
when the effect is brought to bear upon chil- 
dren. 

All persons, especially young ones, who live 
in a moist atmosphere in cold seasons, need more 
clothing than those who live in a dry air ; and 
the feeling of cold calls for it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Digestion cmd Nutrition. 

FOOD AND FOECE. 

THE foil -grown, mature man or woman re- 
quires only sufficient nutrition to repair 
the waste of the body. This waste depends 
upon the amount of force used, either physical 
or mental, for the process of life is but a conver- 
sion of food into force, as in the form of mental 
force — thought; the form of vital force — the act 
of assimilating ailment to the system ; the form 
of physical force — voluntary exercise; or heat, 
which is now considered as but another form 
of force. "Men taken collectively are like a 
powerful machine, in which a certain quantity 
<»f material must be furnished in order to pro- 
duce the required amount of force." 
123 



124 WHEN AND HOW. 

MAN COMPARED TO A STEAM ENGINE. 

In the origin and application of power, man 
may be very aptly compared to the steam 
engine ; a certain amount of fuel must be sup- 
plied to the engine, and in direct proportion to 
this amount of fuel is the amount of force 
evolved; vital force in running its own machin- 
ery; physical force in power t<> act upon other 
bodies, and in heat, which may be converted 
into force This is the same process seen in the 
life of man in all the particulars, except the 
thinking part— mental force; and here the en- 
gine requires the engineer to preside. Restrict 
the amount of fuel, and we lower the power <>r 
force of the engine; and as Burely as we reduce 
the amount of food below man's necessities, so 
surely we reduce his force in one or all its forms. 

In tin- comparison we would not look upon 
man as a mere machine, for there is that in him 
infinitely above machinery; but the comparison 
is good as an illustration. 

FORCE CAN ONLY EQUAL FOOD. 

If we do not have food we will not have 
power; and the amount of force evolved is in 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 125 

direct proportion to the amount of food our 
digestion is daily assimilating, and converting 
into force. The food we eat is constantly being 
converted, by the process of assimilation, into 
the tissue of our bodies, and then used up as 
force, on the same principle that fuel is con- 
verted into force in the steam engine — the 
combustion of material — a union of food ele- 
ments with the oxygen of the air we receive 
into our lungs. 

THE CHILD AND THE GROWN PERSON. 

If in the mature person, who has no growth 
to suj)ply, so much depends upon the amount 
of food he is able to use, how much more im- 
portant is a sufficient quantity of food to the 
growing person ? The child, in addition to the 
waste of material consumed in force, has to sup- 
ply material for the growth of his body and 
mind. 

This growth is what the body of the child 
acquires after it has used enough of the food 
taken to supply the waste; though in some 
instances growth will progress at the expense 
of repair, and in such cases we see marked 
debility. 



126 WHEN AND HOW. 



REPAIR OF WASTE AND GROWTH. 

But if the food be abundant and the assimi- 
lation good, both the renovation from waste and 
the growth will go on harmoniously, and the 
child will develop in health, vigor, and energy. 
Let the quantity of food be too small, or its 
quality inferior, and immediately we see the 
growth checked, or the child shows a want of 
energy — is very much debilitated. 

OVER -FEEDING AND UNDER - FEED I N [Q . 

Feeding our children too much, or feeding 
them too little, are alike wrong; we should 
strive to give them just enough ; but if we err 
either way, it is better for them that they be 
over-fed. 

Occasionally eating too much does far less 
harm than always receiving less than Nature 
requires; if we take the child's appetite as the 
rule and guide, we shall very rarely find them 
taking too much; especially when the appetite 
has not been rendered acute by an inadequate 
supply of food. 

"Excess is the vice of adults rather than of 
the young, who are rarely either gourmands or 



DIGESTION AND NUTRrriON. 127 

epicures, unless through the fault of those who 
rear them." 

If we observed closely we should see that 
restriction was not for the best — that our rea- 
sons for so doing were incorrect. 



Too much denying the appetite of the young, 
by mothers and nurses, is far from right, and 
will lead to their giving loose reins to their 
appetites when they are free from restraint, even 
if it does not reduce the system too low to 
withstand the influence of disease. People are 
too much disposed to think that the appetite is 
not a correct guide, and that our children's love 
of eating must be curbed. We think they will 
surfeit themselves, and, if not controlled, eat 
dainties enough to cause sickness. 

Now, this is true so far as it applies to dain- 
ties, and more true with those who are restricted 
in the quantity and quality of food they shall 
eat. But the child who has wholesome and 
nutritious food, and has it at regular intervals, 
and all he wants of it, will not hurt himself with 
dainties so quickly as the one who is pinched 
with short living. 



128 WHEN AND HOW. 



NATURE GAVE THE CHILD ITS APPETITE. 

The appetite was given by Nature, "too wise 
to err," and it was given for a purpose; and 
farther, when it is gone the child lias eaten 
enough, and when he has eaten enough it is 
gone — taken away by Nature. All living crea- 
tures have it; and when it is pressing it calls 
louder — is harder to be denied than any other 
of the physical or mental wants. 

THE o RATIFICATION OF THE APPETITE BY Yo[ \<; 

ANIMALS. 

And it is gratified to the full by every animal 
except the child ! The tanner knows his stock 
will do as well, yes, far better, when they are 
young, if he gives them all the food they want. 
Whose calves look the best, that fanner's who 
gives them one-half or three-fourths the food 
they will eat, or that farmer's who lets them run 
and take all they want \ 

Where is the farmer who would think of 
restricting the amount of nourishment his fine 
colt shall take when he is trying to make all he 
can of it? On the contrary, he turns him out 
where there is hay and grass in abundance ; and 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 129 

then tempts Lira to take more by giving him a 
dish of grain. And by thus doing he gets a 
finely developed colt, that grows to a large, 
strong horse ; sound and full of energy. 

WHEN AND WHO SURFEITS. 

But supposing he checks his appetite, and 
giving him less than he needs to eat, and by 
chance he gets his head where there is a 
" dainty," or a variety to him, then he will sur- 
feit himself; but never when allowed to have 
all he wants of that food every day. 

Exactly so with the child. When his food 
has been restricted, or when he gets an article 
of food he has wanted for a long time, and not 
had, it is a dainty to him, and he will over-eat ; 
while the child, whose appetite is gratified every 
day, and when it very much wishes a certain 
article of food has it, will not " let his appetite 
run away with him." 

EXCESS A CONSEQUENCE OF RESTRICTION. 

The most of these instances of excess in chil- 
dren are but the usual consequences of restric- 
tion — a restriction the system will not justify; 
they are sensual reactions from a form of rigid 



130 WHEN AND HOW". 

dietetics. They illustrate a common remark, 
which is very true in fact, "that those who, 
during youth, are subject to most vigorous 
discipline, are apt to rush into wild extrava- 
gances." They are on a par with the fearful 
phenomena once so common, where the most 
austere monks and nuns would suddenly relapse 
into an extreme of wickedness. They are but 
exhibitions of the uncontrolable force of long 
pent-up desire. 

HIE LOVE OF SWEETS AND SUGARS. 

There are many things in the tastes and 
desires of children that should be noticed and 
gratified, and among these we would notice the 
love of sweets and sweet food. How often it is 
denied, and any excuse — no matter how false 

in fact it may b< is used to keep the child 

from eating them. 

We presume that most people think it to be 
only a gratification of the palate, and that in 
common with the sensual desires it should be 
denied. But physiology tells us that there is a 
thing or two more in the child's love of sweets 
than common opinion supposes; things quite 
reasonable to those who will use their judg- 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 131 

ment. Sugar is so important in the animal 
economy that, when it is not feci to the child, 
the manufacture of it must be carried on in its 
body, and other forms of food reduced to sugar 
in the course of assimilation. Starch is thus 
changed; and the liver is a sugar manufactory 
when the system wants it. 

THE ULTIMATE TJSE OF SUGAR, STARCH, AND FATS 
THE SAME. 

Sugar, starch, and fats are ultimately used as 
producers of heat for the body. Now, if a child, 
as is often the case, will not eat fats sufficient 
for the purpose of keeping its body warm, it is 
perfectly plain that this love of sugar aviII 
supply a want in the child's body; and if it is 
gratified it will save the liver from over- work; 
it is perfectly plain that this appetite was given 
the child that all the wants of the body might 
be supplied. 

ILLEGITIMATE GRATIFICATION OF THE APPETITE. 

r I'h is is but a fair illustration of all of the 
child's appetites. When they are not legiti- 
mately gratified they will be in an illegitimate 
way, or the constitution of the child must suffer. 



132 WHEN AND HOW. 

All have noticed how eagerly children will eat 
sour green fruit, as grapes, currents, or apples ; 
and do it when to us — older people — it would 
be anything but a gratification to the appetite. 

Here is the principle in this appetite: vege- 
table acids, as well as mineral acids, are tonic in 
their action, especially to young, growing bodies. 
Good, wholesome, ripe fruit is denied the child, 
when the system requires its use; so it takes it 
in any form. 

FRUITS AND SWEETS THE CHILD SHOULD HAVE. 

Fruits are the child's delight, and will be 
used freely when he can get them. l>ut how 
regardless are parents of this appetite both for 
acids and sweets. These two dominant desires 
of the child's appetite, in which we can see a wise 
order of Nature, are in most families denied. 

Children are not only deprived of sweets and 
fruits when they chance to see them, but they 
are not supplied with them at their regular 
meals — the only true time for any eating. 

THE CONSTANT USE OF OXE KIND OF FOOD. • 

Bread and butter are used for breakfast, and 
bread and milk for dinner and for supper, in 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 133 

many families, for the children ; or perhaps the 
child's dinner is fried pork and potatoes, and 
perhaps it is fried pork and potatoes three times 
a day, among the farmers and laborers; but 
whatever the routine is, be it this, or some other 
equally injurious compound, it is rigidly adhered 
to morning, noon, and night, day after day, until 
the ajjpetite is not only satiated, but disgusted 
with food that only provides one or two of the 
elements needed to supply the w T aste and growth 
of the little ones. 

A CONSEQUENCE OF RESTRICTION. 

The consequence of this is, when the child 
gets an opportunity to eat what its appetite 
craves, it will over-eat ; and from this over- 
eating sickness comes. 

This over-eating is the basis of the argument, 
that it will not do to gratify a child's appetite 
— that Nature's way of calling for what it needs 
is not to be trusted. Children i'vd on fruit at 
meal times, and on sweets, such as sugar, molas- 
ses, and sweetened breads and puddings, will 
have that want for candy supplied, and when 
tliey have candy there is no danger of their 
eating too much. Nor will the child who is 



134 WHEN AND HOW. 

supplied with good, wholesome fruits at its 
meals, ever eat, or want to eat, those sour, 
unripe fruits, so unwholesome, and, to our 
appetites, unpalatable. 

IN CHANGING THE DIET WE SHOULD CONTROL THE 
APPETITE. 

All this interference with the child's appetite 
is wrong, except that which shall control it 
when there is a change from articles commonly 
used to a new one; but all these changes should 
be made with care. 

Use the same intelligence in changing the 
food of your child that you use in changing 
the fond of your horse. There is hardly a man 
so foolish as to change his horse at once from 
dry hay and oats to green grass and corn; but 
if your horse has daily had his corn for a time, 
and had enough to keep him from hunger, you 
do not fear that lie will eat too much should 
he have an opportunity. Apply the same com- 
mon sense to your child, and you will not fear 
to trust his appetite — he will never take too 
much — never use more than he has power to 
assimilate. 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 135 



THE APPETITE GIVEN TOR A PURPOSE. 

The appetite calls for what the body needs 
most, or has least of — what the digestive organs 
can best make into a material to repair the most 
rapid waste, or a pabulum for the growth of the 
most deficient part. 

This appetite, which we call hunger, was not 
given us for naught, it did not "happen" so; 
but it was for the wise purpose of filling our 
stomachs with material for the growth and sup- 
ply of our bodies; and can Ave not have con- 
fidence enough in the Creator to believe He 
adapted it to our wants? especially when we 
see He has done so for the lower animals ? 

A STRANGE INCONSISTENCY. 

A strange inconsistency is that which be- 
lieves that every animal may eat what it 
wants, and when it wants, and as much as it 
wants, except only the child — he only must 
be controlled. 

Away with it! Let the child have the food 
he ><» much desires, and have it when and in the 
quantities he wants; only guarding him when 
it is a new dish — when it is a great change 



136 WHEN AND HOW. 

from what lie has been accustomed to. His 
hunger is not so very different from your own, 
and surely if you want an apple you Avill have 
it ; or any other article of food for which you 
feel a strong desire. 

Let all food be given at regular intervals, 
and often enough to prevent any strong feeling 
of hunger. 

THE APPETITE THE ONLY (HIDE OF VALUE. 

It is not only a fact that the reasons for trust- 
ing children's appetites are strong, and those for 
not trusting them }>a>c<l upon false views; but 
appetite is the only guide Ave have thai is enti- 
tled to any confidence. Perhaps you say, you 
know how to iWd the child — know how much 
he wants. But how do you know? Simply by 
his calling for food : and upon his cry of hunger 
you have based your knowledge of what he 
wants. No two children want just the same, 
in kind, time, and quantity, any more than any 
two children look just alike. 

We have no secret understanding of the wants 
of the child's physical system — no clairvoyant 
view of his internal necessities. Then how can 
we kn< >w I We can only guess, and we may 






DIGESTION AND NUTBITION. 137 

guess wrong as easily as right. Nature does 
not depend upon guess-work. 

OUE CONFIDENCE BETBAYS OUE IGNOEANCE. 

The confidence we assume when we are legis- 
lating for our children's stomachs only shows 
that we do not know what we are doing ; if we 
did know we would not do it as often as we 
now do. "The pride of science is. humble when 
compared with the pride of ignorance." 

HUMAN JUDGMENT VEESUS NATUEE. 

Very little faith is to be placed in human 
judgments when we compare them with the 
acts of the Creator who gave these appetites to 
be the "rule and guide of our action" when we 
are supplying our bodies with nutrition. 

If we would know how little confidence is 
to be placed in the judgments of men as we 
observe them, let us compare the rashness and 
egotism of the uneducated quack — and some- 
times of the young physician — with the calm, 
assured deliberation of the studious and experi- 
enced doctor of mature age. How much more 
he sees in Nature to imitate — how much more 
confidence he has in restorations of Nature ; and 



138 WHEN" AXD HOW. 

he will only act in harmony with the Creator 
and Preserver. 

THE QUALITY OF THE FOOD. 

In looking at the quality of food the child 
should use, we shall find in many instances the 
same prejudices which exists concerning the 
quantity it wants. Many parents seem to think 
that a comparatively low diet is sufficient for 
the child; and that they do not need, and 
should not eat, much meat. 

MEAT FOB CHILDREN. 

In some cases the wish is father to the 
thought; the parent does not feel able to sup- 
ply all the meat wanted in the family, and he 
reasons that tin- child does not work, and he 
says, "I labor every day, I need the meat, and 
he can play and Btudy better without meat than 
with it:' The argument used to the child who 
is putting in his claim for more meat, is "that 
meat is not good for children;" and it has been 
used so l<>iig that it is firmly believed by most 
of those who do not study this subject. But 
be assured this is only a dogma of the past age. 
Our children want meat — and need meat. The 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 139 

system craves it. Nature gave them an appe- 
tite for it. It is not an acquired appetite. 
Meat is one of the first things an infant desires; 
and it is of easy assimilation. 

]\rrLK FOR THE INFANT. 

The infant- — not having acquired a strong 
muscular coat to his stomach — should only 
receive animal food in the form of milk, or of 
the extract of meat ; as the solid substance 
needs an amount of trituration before it can be 
changed into chyme, or made fit for aliment. 
The infant's stomach has not strength to do 
this, and thus Ave have an anatomical reason 
for withholding solid nutriment from it. But 
this objection does not hold against the use 
of fluid animal food; nor does it hold with 
children who have acquired a fully developed 
muscular stomach, which we are sure to find 
in the healthy child of one or two years 
of age ; for such a child will possess an 
amount of muscular vigor sufficient for using 
any form of animal food, rightly prepared for 
any stomach. 

Thus, while this theory is not entirely incor- 
rect in the case of small children, it is wholly 



140 WHEN JlND HOW. 

mistaken with regard to older ones — who alone 
crave much animal food. 

THE CHILD SHOULD HAVE THE MOST NUTRITIOUS 

1 ( >OD. 

Yet we find they are quite as likely to he 
restricted in the amount they shall use. "The 
verdict of science is exactly contrary to this 
popular opinion." All learned physicians, and 
our most distinguished physiologists, uniformly 
agree that the child Bhould have a diet not less, 
but more, nutritious than the adult, and have it 
in a form easy of digestion, thus economizing 
the force required for its assimilation, and leav- 
ing all the power possible to be used in devel- 
oping the muscular and osseous structure. 

the child's VERSUS W\N*S vital powers. 

These conclusions are arrived a1 by a simple 
comparison of the vital powers in a man with 
those of the child. We see at once that in man 
there is an amount of waste by visceral changes 
produced by the vital processes of life — by 
voluntary muscular efforts, as in labor — by 
waste of brain tissue, as in mental effort — and 
by combustion producing heat to supply the 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 141 

loss by radiation from the surface of the body. 
Man's food must supply all these losses to keep 
the body from wasting away. In the grown 
man, then, we have only to make up the loss in 
"wear and tear," and supply the fuel to keep 
the body warm. 

But how is it with the child ? 

He has also to supply the waste arising from 
the vital actions, and the voluntary muscular 
activities so fully displayed in restlessness that 
"never tires," which restlessness demonstrates 
that there is a much greater action in the child 
than in the man — that though he is much 
smaller, he wastes as much in muscular exercise 
as a grown person. 

The child, too, loses heat by radiation, as the 
man does; and from the fact that his body is 
not usually as well protected as the man's, but 
legs, arms, and neck are frequently exposed, there 
is far greater loss of heat than in the. man: and 
there is brain waste, also; for these little ones 
are all the time learning; never anything passes 
their notice without leaving its trace upon their 
brain ; their mental activities fully equal the 
muscular. Thus Ave see that the child has the 
same wants to supply as the man, and from 



142 WHEN AND HOW. 

their greater activity the waste is greater, com- 
paratively, than in a full-grown man. Were 
these all, were there not another call upon the 
appetite for nutrition, the child would want as 
much as the man to keep an equilibrium of loss 
and gain. But besides repairing the body, the 
child has something new to make — has to 
grow, and that every day, if he continues to be 
healthy. After the waste of the body is made 
good, the growth is attended to; but the waste 
and warmth first 

REPAIRS FIRST, THEN GROWTH. 

The child grows only when he uses more food 
than is required to repair the waste of the body, 
and keep it warm. This is the general rule; 
but as the exception we find growth progress- 
ing .it tin- expense of rejiair; and in all such 
instance the child is weak — flesh flabby, with 
no strength, vigor, or energy. The development 
is not equal to the growth, and thus the ti<-nes 
are of poor quality. 

THE TENACITY OF THE APPETITE. 

How peremptoiy is the appetite of this grow- 
ing humanity, may be seen by observing the 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 143 

almost ravenous desire of the school-boy — by 
remembering how our own appetites at that age 
impelled us to seek the pantry, or cupboard, or 
cake-basket, because we could not wait until 
meal -time came. Every one in grown-up life 
has thought that " never any one did or could 
cook as our mother did," forgetting that a 
" good appetite always made a good dinner." 

That the child needs the best and the most fre- 
quent nutrition is further proved by the fact that 
in all famines the children are the first to die. 

THE CHTLD SHOULD HAVE PART CONCENTRATED 
EOOD. 

Admitting, then, that the child needs rela- 
tively more food than man, the next question 
that comes up is, shall Ave meet it with a greater 
quantity, or with a more nutritious quality? 
Shall it be diluted or concentrated in form? 
The nutriment that the stomach can assimilate 
from a pound of beef cannot be obtained from a 
pound of bread, potatoes, or vegetables; but for 
the same amount of nutrition a much greater 
quantity of these articles will be required. 
Now, shall we give the child two pounds of 
bread, three pounds of potatoes, or several 



144 WHEN AND HOW. 

pounds of vegetables, or shall we give it one 
pound of meat ( The answer is, neither alone, 
hut part of each. That is, do not restrict the 
child to a meat diet; and, above all, do not 
restrict it to a vegetable diet, but give it a 
mixed diet — just what a healthy child's appe- 
tite will call for. The child, needing more food 
in the ratio of size than man, must expend more 
vital force in digestion. Now, shall we increase 
this expenditure of vital force, by providing a 
dilute vegetable food alone — difficult of diges- 
tion; or shall Ave give it, in part, animal food— - 
more concentrated, and of easy assimilation? 
The answer is one that comes readily enough 
from all who have taken time to consider these 
questions, as they have the raising of colts, 
calves, and pigs. To these they always give 
the variety that comes from the best field of 
grass, or from the best coarse fodder and grain. 
They have a mixed diet, but the best of the 
mixed diet. Do this same way by your child, 
and you will do right. 

VITAL FORCE USED IX DIGESTION. 

In the digestion even of the most easily 
assimilated food, a large amount of vital force 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 145 

is expended ; and to the child, who must digest 
so much, it is of especial consequence that its 
food be easy of digestion. The less vital force 
expended in digestion, the more there is to 
expend in other directions, mental or physical. 

"labor lost." 

When nutriment is taken from innutritious 
substances, a much greater labor is performed 
by the child ; which is " labor lost " that might 
have been saved had the child received concen- 
trated nourishment, such as is found in animal 
food. This loss is shown in a smaller growth, 
or in diminished energy, or in both. Then 
we say, feed the child on food that combines a 
large proportion of nutrition with facility of 
digestion. 

CHILDREN- MAY LIVE WITHOUT ANIMAL FOOD. 

We do not doubt but boys and girls may be, 
and are, brought up upon an almost exclusively 
vegetal )lc diet. Among the better educated 
classes we find the vegetarian, and in some of 
the poorer classes we find now and then one 
who uses no animal food; and yet they thrive, 
and grow, and appear to have good health. 
7 



146 WHEN AND HOW. 

It is not a very uncommon thing to find a 
healthy maturity in the country, among the 
English people ; and among the children a good 
growth, where no meat is used. But these are 
the exceptions, and have, by no means, the 
weight commonly given them. Their develop- 
ment is not a fine one ; it is coarse and soft, not 
hardy, firm, and full of the energy of childhood. 

MEAT AND ENERGY. 

These bread -and -potato -eating children, if 
they arrive at manhood, are not the ones who 
develop the active energy that "moves the 
world" — that contends successfully with ad- 
verse circumstances, and ahvays conquers ; they 
are the very contented ones, who take life as 
it comes, and are not disturbed if it has " no 
blessings for them." They will " never set the 
world on fire," or put it out when our meat 
eaters have fired it. 

THE QUESTION IS NOT ONE OF SIZE, BUT OF 
ENDURANCE. 

Here we see the question is not one of size or 
comely proportions, but one of active endurance. 
The soft, flabby flesh may make as good a show, 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION 147 

when in active, as the firm, wiry boy or man, to 
the eye of the careless observer ; but when we 
come to an active life of competition, the 
strength will be tried, and the difference will 
be proven. The fat man is not the strong man, 
and this is especially true of the child. 

In the army, the lean, muscular soldier always 
out -wore the obese one — could march further 
any hour, and many more hours in a day 

The energy of the meat-eating child who has 
his appetite gratified with other foods as they are 
wanted, as well as with meat when it is wanted, 
will ever outstrip all potato-and-bread-eating chil- 
dren, and in physical force to sustain that energy. 

THE CHILD WHO HAS ANIMAL FOOD IS ALWAYS 
"AHEAD." 

The eater of animal food is always " ahead " 
in everything but "casting a shadow." We 
may feel sure to win, if we bet on his superior 
mental and physical vivacity. Concentrated 
nutriment always increases activity. 

VEGETABLE FEEDERS HAVE LARGE ABDOMENS. 

Every child who cats enough of innutritions 
food to keep ii]) his growth will have a large 



148 WHEN AND HOW. 

abdomen, as much more room is required to 
receive the large bulk of food from which to 
get the nutrition necessary. This fact is seen in 
animals as well as in men. 

THE GRASS -FED HORSE. 

Take as an example the horse fed on hay or 
grass alone. It has so large an abdomen as to 
be incapable of active exercise; and all who 
are acquainted with the animal, know that it is 
not fit for active duties — will only travel at a 
moderate pace — has no energy — does only 
what it is obliged to do, and is content in any 
position of ease. 

THE GRAIN -FED HORSE. 

Take this same horse and feed it with a con- 
centrated food — as grain — for a time, and how 
changed is the animal ! 

Draw the reins over this grain-fed horse, and 
it will travel with an energy that you will need 
to overcome instead of urging. The abdominal 
viscera are reduced in size, and the development 
of the animal is good, fine, and wiry. 

Why this change? Simply — as you know — 
by a change from food coarse and innutritious 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 149 

to that in a more concentrated form. This con- 
centrated food for the horse is easily assimilated 
into nutritious elements, in making good and 
strong tissues, and into nerve tissue that gives 
the horse energy, which is worked off in physi- 
cal force, and not all used up in extracting its 
quota of aliment from coarse food. 

ACTIVITY Or ANIMALS DEPENDS UPON THE KIND 
OF FOOD THEY USE. 

We may go further, and compare the activi- 
ties of animals who feed on food of different 
degrees of nutritive quality, as the herb-eating 
sheep, with the dog that feeds upon animal and 
farinaceous food, and we see the same kind of 
difference. 

Walk through a menagerie and compare the 
stolid quiet of the herbivorous animals with the 
restless activity of the carnivorous; the one 
sleepy and docile, peaceful and slow; the other 
restless and impatient, powerful and courageous, 
ever ready to do anything but — keep still. 
The one uses dilute nutriment, and must have 
a large bulk to supply its wants; the other 
u>es concentrated nutriment — easy of digestion. 
That this difference of activity is not from a 



150 WHEN AND HOW. 

difference of constitution— or original make-up 
of the animal— is proven by the example of the 
horse; it being changed from its dull slowness 
to an active animal merely by changing its 

food. 

It is also proven by the different races of 
men. The low physical development and want 
of energy of the Bushmen is owing, in great 
part, to his diet of herbs, roots, and berries, and 
other miserably poor fare. They are puny in 
stature, with very large abdomens, and soft, 
undeveloped muscles. They are quite unable 
to compete with any nation, either in a short 
struggle or an enduring contest. 

Notice the feats of the man who has been in 
training for an exhibition of great strength, and 
compare him with those using the fare of ordi- 
nary lite. He endures very much more than he 
could without this training; which is but feed- 
ing the man upon the same principle we would 
feed a horse whose utmost strength we wished 
to use without injury to him. It is only con- 
centrated food at regular intervals, and enough 
of it, with steady exercise. 



DIGESTION AKD NUTEITTON. 151 

BEEF VEESTJS ¥AE. 

Observations froni history tell us that those 
armies which are fed upon animal and concen- 
trated food have been the most successful; as 
seen in the English army, eating largely of flesh, 
who were far more efficient than the continental 
armies, who used a less nutritious food, with 
very little meat. 

In our own age we have the late Rebellion as 
an example ; when the best fed army was the 
one always victorious, other things being any- 
where near equal. It has been said by good 
judges that the success of the Northern army 
largely depended upon its beef. That this suc- 
cess was not alone from the people, or soldiers, 
as a race, but that beef did have some effect, 
is proven by the fact that the Southern army 
was the most successful when it had the most 
beef. This difference of diet has ever been one 
of the strong points in the regimen of armies; 
and when a contending general learned that 
the opposing army was running close on its 
rations — that they were using a coarse diet — 
and had ii<» concentrated food, he knew his suc- 
cess was only a question of time, even though 



152 WHEN AND HOW. 

they had an abundance to keep from hunger 
and starvation. 

AN EXCLUSIVE MEAT DIET WRONG. 

Do not think that we use these arguments 
to prove that an exclusive meat diet is proper. 
Such a course would be equally erroneous ; but 
we would have a medium line followed, in feed- 
ing our children and ourselves, observing the true 
guide, given us by the Power that made us and 
placed us here — and that knows perfectly all we 
need for health and development. A healthy 
nature calls only for what it wants or needs. 

AN ANATOMICAL ARGUMENT. 

There is an anatomical argument in favor of 
a mixed diet, seen by all who have studied it, 
and answered by none ; and it is that the devel- 
opment of the digestive organs shows that man 
was designed to be omnivorous. They partake, 
in form, of the organs of omnivorous and herb- 
ivorous animals — they have apparatuses or 
organs for obtaining nutriment from vegetable 
and animal food, which is not the fact with 
those animals having an appetite for only one 
of these varieties. 



digestion and nutrition. 153 

The teeth and the motions of the jaw show 
the same. Here is an argument — taken with 
the appetite for variety — powerfully in favor 
of our eating animal as well as vegetable food, 
and to this argument there is no answer. 

How any one can see all this adaptation to a 
mixed diet, and still think man made only for a 
vegetable diet, we do not see. There must be 
a want of faith in the wisdom of a Creator, in 
the one who, knowing the confomiation of our 
digestive organs, believes that man should not 
eat meat as well as bread. If a special form of 
diet was intended, as for animal food, we should 
have had teeth and motions of the jaw espe- 
cially adapted to masticating meat; and if we 
were only to eat vegetable food, we should have 
had teeth and motions of the jaw especially 
adapted to grinding vegetables and cereals, or 
die wisdom of a Creator would not be indicated. 
In all other organs and combination of organs, 
we see a special co-adaptation of means to the 
(Mid, and why not here? 

SOME CONCLUSIONS. 

This evidence, we think, distinctly proves that 
a concentrated fond is best formal] and best for 



154 WHEN AND HOW. 

the child. It also shows that though the child 
may continue to grow, even to fall stature, on a 
vegetable diet, that the quality of the tissue 
will be greatly inferior— that the energy of the 
child— and the man after the child— will be 
far below those fed on animal food. It proves 
that though the child, of whom little is expected, 
may do tolerably well on a food free from ani- 
mal substance; yet the boy or girl of whom 
much is expected, either physically or mentally, 
must live on substances containing a large pro- 
portion of nutrition, or we shall be disappointed 
in his physical growth, or in his mental capacity, 
in his physical activities, or in the quickness 
of his mental perceptions. It is an obvious fact 
that the denial of animal food to the child will 
be at the expense of the repair of the waste, 
thus preventing a fine development ; or it will 
be at the expense of the growth, thus making 
him inferior in stature; or at the expense of 
energy, thus making him a cypher in the world, 
or it may be at the expense of his intellect; and 
perhaps all of these will suffer. We believe no 
one who looks this subject over fully and freely 
will see it in any other light. To believe differ- 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 155 

ently is to accept of the fallacy, that something 
can be obtained from nothing. 

A VARIETY OF FOOD FOR THE CHILD. 

A few words must be said upon the variety 
of food for children. Like man, they want a 
variety, and will thrive better in body and in 
mind if they have it. The satiety of an often- 
repeated article of food is known to all who 
have the care of children, and all know the keen 
relish that belongs to a new article of food. 

The gratification of the palate is not a mean- 
ingless pleasure, but it tells, and tells strongly, 
in favor of a change of the food. It is an incen- 
tive to a wholesome change of diet. The fact 
is fully established that there is no one article 
of food — no matter of how good qualities — 
that has the proportions of nutrition in it which 
the child needs at all times ; and for this reason 
the appetite is given for another article that will 
more agreeably nil a want that the last variety 
of food did not meet. The enjoyment of a meal 
awakens much nervous energy, which increases 
the action of the heart, propelling the blood 
with added vigor, and thus aiding the digestive 
processes. 



156 AVHEN AND HOW. 

A VARIETY AT EACH MEAL. 

The same reasons that would demand an occa- 
sional change of food call for a few different 
dishes at each meal. The more perfect the bal- 
ance of ingredients, the greater the stimulus 
applied to the various forces of the body. In 
proof, notice how complacently the stomach of 
the grown person will digest a very large dinner 
made up of a great variety of dishes, as com- 
pared with the digesting of a large dinner made 
up of one dish only. Few will think that an 
equal amount of well-cooked food of one variety 
can be digested with as much ease as when it is 
made up of several kinds. 

HOW TO HAVE MEN AND WOMEN OF WOTCTH. 

Then do not think it too much trouble to 
give the child a variety, and to let that variety 
be what suits his appetite— his sense of what 
he is in need of. If you want strong, healthy, 
children, whose minds shall be capable of grap- 
pling with the truths of science as they unfold 

if you want children who will leave their 

impress on this world, and " act well their part 
in life's drania" — who will not be drones 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 157 

among their fellows — who will lead instead 
of being led — feed them a mixed diet, and let 
a large part of that mixture be animal food; 
and do not forget to consider their appetite 
of some importance. 

CAUTIONS. 

A word of cantion is here necessary. No 
change should be made suddenly from one arti- 
cle or class of articles of diet to another, espe- 
cially in changing from a low diet to a higher. 
The low diet has reduced the vitality and 
increased the appetite to a degree that cannot 
be trusted in a grown person, much less in the 
child. Whenever the vitality and energy are 
low, the transition from -poor to better fare must 
be gradual, and as each step of strength is 
gained, a step further may be taken in the 
better qualities of the food. 

From the fact that as a people we are inclined 
to extremes, a word of caution is necessary 
against carrying this concentration of food too 
far. We are too much inclined to be vegeta- 
rians, or we get too far away from vegetables. 
A wholesome medium is what we should come 
at; and a healthy child's appetite, which has 



158 WHEN AND HOW. 

not been tampered with, will call for this me- 
dium, and be satisfied with it. 

Paying due regard to these cautions, and feed- 
ing the child only at stated times — which shall 
be frequent enough to prevent hunger — our 
belief is that the child's food should be highly 
nutritious — as largely animal as the a] (petite 
calls for — should consist of a variety at his 
meals, and that variety again varied at succes- 
sive meals, and that it should have as much in 
quantity as it wants. 

CHILDREN SHOULD EAT WITH FREEDOM. 

How children should eat is a point of import- 
ance; for, in short, the manner of eating has 
largely to do Avith the digestion and assimila- 
tion. A good rule, in a few words, is this : Eat 
slowly, at regular times, and with cheerful un- 
restraint. If the)' are allowed their liberty at 
the table — if they are let alone — they will 
always eat with a freedom of conversation, and 
merry fun, that is a sure and wise preventive 
against fast eating. Jokes and pleasant conver- 
sation are a much better exhilarant than wine 
or any other form of stimulus; and yet many 
parents, from a mistaken notion that they must 



DIGESTION AND NUTRITION. 159 

instill into their children sobriety and propriety, 
so hamper them with previous instructions to 
eat like men and women, that at the dinner- 
table they dare do nothing bnt eat, and thus 
they eat too fast. The dinner-table ought of all 
places to be the scene of the enjoyment of free- 
dom and happiness — of gladness and mirth. 
To tyrannize over children when eating is 
against good common sense. Leave them to 
their instincts — to their happy mirth and na- 
tural joyousness — and to their busy chatting, 
and you may be sure that they, like the hue- 
ling, will eat a long time; much of it being 
spent in the enjoyments connected with eating, 
instead of bolting their food. 

LET CHILDREN EAT TOGETHER, AND NOT WITH 
GROWN PEOPLE. 

Let children eat together, and then there will 
be less disposition to curb their activities ; but 
if they are put at the table with grown people, 
there is a tendency to check everything but 
mature propriety, and when the activities of 
life are checked in one direction they burst out 
in another, and the child eats too fast; as that 
la the only tiling he is allowed to do; and this 



160 WHEN AND HOW. 

fast eating is one of the principal causes of over- 
eating, in men as well as in children. 

DO NOT TEACH ETIQUETTE TO YOUNO CHILDREN. 

Do not attempt to teach your children all 
the rules of table etiquette, and then command 
them to live up to them. It is a cruel task for 
any young child to keep still. He was never 
made to sit like a ramrod, straight and stiff, but 
wants to eat and wiggle — and eat and move — 
and eat and chat — and eat and laugh; thus 
rendering it utterly impossible for him to eat 
too fast, and do all those things he so much 
likes to do when unrestrained. 

Suppose an accident occurs at the table, and 
a tumbler is broken, or a spoonful of sauce goes 
anywhere but to the child's mouth ; suppose the 
table-cloth and his napkins are soiled, it is of no 
consequence when put in comparison with soiled 
digestive organs; and a rapidly-swallowed din- 
ner is sure to stain the purity of the digestion — 
is sure to weaken the process — and, if followed 
up for a time, will surely make a case of dys- 
pepsia. Eating was designed by Him who 
gave us appetites to be a season of enjoyment 



CHAPTER V. 

Food and its Elements. 

FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

MILK is the only safe food for infancy; 
and it should he received from the 
mother, if possible. Nature has provided the 
mother with breasts; and has so ordered, that 
when an infant is brought into a separate life 
from the parent, those breasts secrete a food 
just adapted to the wants of the child. In this 
food Ave find just those elements that will fill 
every variety of demand in the system of the 
little one. 

A PIECE OF HELPLESS HUMANITY. 

Tliis little helpless piece of humanity — the 
most helpless when born of any of the offspring 
of the animal kingdom — the most dependent 
L61 



102 WHEN AND HOW. 

upon others for its every want — can in fact do 
nothing for its maintenance except to breathe. 
It has not the instinct of care, and will perish 
if no kind, human soul contributes to its neces- 
sities. 

If Nature has made the dependence of the 
little infant upon others so great, and at the 
same time has provided a way for feeding this 
mite of life and supplying its wants, ought not 
its parents, who have brought it into life with 
all its feebleness, to follow her in the way she 
has provided ? 

CARING FOR OUR OWN CHILDREN. 

What is the conclusion at which we must 
arrive as to the propriety of bringing children 
into this life unless we intend to care for them 
— and not .only intend to, but are prepared 
to, and will do it? Mother, can you wilfully 
bring a child into life and then leave it to 
the care of one who has no love for it — to 
be fed and caressed only by a muse? when 
you are the only one who wall love it — and 
the only one who can love it as Nature de- 
signed it to be loved, with the " milk of human 
kindness " \ 



FOOD AXD ITS ELEMENTS. 163 



MOTHERS SHOULD NURSE THEIR INFANTS. 

We have no patience with those parents, 
who, having given life to a child, are so lost to 
the tenderness of a human life — of all animal 
life — as to desert the "flesh of their flesh," 
and provide a hired nurse for their infant, feed- 
ing him on food from a stranger — parents who 
will originate a child, a part of themselves, 
and let it grow up a part of some one else. 
Such a child, at the close of the nursing months, 
is not flesh of its parents' flesh — it is only 
partly their child. 

Its physical life may be far different from 
what it would have been had it been nursed at 
its mother's breast, and taught upon her knee. 

We dote upon a child as ours ; " there never 
was a child like this.'" Then let it be ours 
through all its tender years. While it must 
have the food and care provided by those able 
t<> provide, let it receive it from its own parents 
;t- much as possible. 

II WE NTRSE OUR OWN THEY'LL RE 0UE8. 

Then, as it grows up it grows up our own 
— what we have made it. It has no foreign 



164 WHEN AND HOW. 

element mixed with the " blood of our blood ; " 
and its early taught lessons have been learned 
from us. All it is, and all it is to be, is ours, 
both by entailment and teaching. Then, if it 
is a "never was such a child," we may claim 
the thanks. 

IF WE DO NOT NUESE OUR OWN THEY'LL NOT 
BE OURS. 

On the contrary, our child is born and its 
inheritance is from us — its father and mother; 
then it passes into the hands of a nurse, and 
its growth is not ours — it is an introduction of 
the elements of a third person into what we 
claim as our child. Such a child is not the 
child of two loving parents, but of two parents 
and a third or " step parent," who has, from her 
own blood and body, provided nutrition for the 
muscles, bones, tissues, and nerve cells in all 
their growth since birth. 

Previous to conception it was a part of its 
mother and a part of its father. In its foetal 
life it was a part and parcel of its mother; 
and thus, all there is of a child at its birth is 
derived froin its parents ; but in its nursing life 
it is learning and growing from a "third par- 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 1 (').") 

ent," and all it grows and improves during its 
infantile life, if nursed by another than its 
mother, is not ours, but is of the one who has 
fed it from herself: it has drawn its support 
and life, not from a maternal fountain, but from 
this " step parent. 11 

Proud mother — you who feel so much that 
your infant is all your own — if you wish to keep 
it yours, and that it shall be only " of you," all 
your own, never let another take your place in 
the duty you owe that infant. 

PARENTS THE CAUSE OF THE CHILD'S LIFE. 

You who have given it life and being — a 
life that will live " forevermore " in some state 
«.f existence — a life that has come without any 
volition of its own — you should feel that noth- 
ing in heaven above, on earth, or in any other 
place, has a prior claim upon you. Until you 
thus feel you are not ready to become a mother 

are not ready to give a life that has so help- 
Less a beginning. A father is wrong in being 
in partnership with such a woman in causing 
lift-. A just Heaven will hold parents respon- 
sible for giving, <>i causing a life to ]>e given, as 
well as caring for it; and I know no greater 



166 WHEN AND HOW. 

ciime than to bring beings into life when there 
is no way provided for their bodily welfare, for 
their spiritual and moral instruction; beings 
who must contend for existence without the 
love of parents, and without the teaching that 
shall give them a chance to compete in this 
life with all that may chance to cross their 
path, and a moral instruction that shall insure 
a future state of reward. Is it any worse to 
take life than to give a life under such circum- 
stances? or, if you object to the word "give," 
to be the " cause of its being given " ? Ah ! 
there is many a man and woman who can trulij 
say. "it were better had I never been born," 
when the failure was not all then' own. 

These are thoughts worthy of being consid- 
ered with the greatest care. 

.MILK IS FOOD PREPARED BY NATURE. 

But from this digression we will now return 
to the food prepared for infants. We say it 
should 1 >e taken from the mother's breast, every 
time, and all the time. The mother who has 
nourished her child with her own blood, made 
good and wholesome by the food she has eaten, 
digested, and assimilated as a part of her blood 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 167 

through the nine months of foetal life, should 
not now, at the most critical time in its life, 
desert it, l>ut should continue to nourish it with 
the milk from her breasts, made by them from 
her blood, which is made good by food she has 
eaten, in just the same way as her blood was 
made nutritive while yet the child was unborn. 
Make no change. If you are fitted to become 
a mother, you are fitted to 1 lecome a nurse, and 
in all maternal cares to look after your child. 



There may be circumstances when a mother 
can not nourish her infant, although there 
ought not to be. In all such cases, supply the 
infant with food which is nearest like the 
mother's breast ; and this will be from the " wet 
nurse," one of good, health, good moral charac- 
ter, and good temperament, with a fresh and 
recent breast of milk. It is much better when 
we can find one whose infant is of about the 
same age as the one to be supplied with food. 

Be very careful as to the health of the nurse, 
ami that she is not, passionate; for these pas- 
sions may be impressed upon the child that is 
to be nourished, and if nourished, taught by 



168 avhen and how. 

every look, tone, and gesture, as well as by pre- 
cept; and thus may partake of her prominent 
characteristics. 

"the bottle." 

Next to the wet nurse comes the bottle, 
tilled with cow's milk, which in early infancy 
should he reduced with water about one third, 
and always sweetened with the best white 
sugar. The mother's milk is much sweeter 
than that from the cow, and this loss of sweet- 
ness must be made good, or the child will 
suffer with cold. 

We believe that there is too much reduced 
milk used, and that the child of two or three 
months' age will do better on undiluted cow's 
milk. Observing the effect of reduced milk, as 
compared with that which is unreduced, will be 
the surest test, as all children are not alike in 
digestive ability; and the cow's milk is not Na- 
ture's food for the infant, but Nature's food for 
the calf, able to walk from the da)' of its birth. 

THE TEETH SHOW WHEN TO ORE SOLID FOOD. 

The question is often asked — how old should 
an infant be before it is fed? As the teeth 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 169 

are formed, Nature shows that it is ready for 
another form of food — that which is solid 
enough to give them use according to their 
development. As they show themselves, we 
may gradually change from an exclusive milk 
diet to food of more consistence. This change 
should be little by little; first mixing a little 
flour or extract of meat with the milk food, and 
on to a little of the fiber of animal food, both 
lean and fat, as the child's appetite seems to 
want it, or choose between it and other forms 
of food ; and by the time the child is one year 
old it may eat all kinds of meats, and farina- 
ceous food, that are plain, and not too recently 
prepared. 

DRINKING COW'S *riLK. 

But at this age the child will find a sure and 
excellent form of food in the cow's milk. Let 
it have all it wants, and when it wants it — in 
its pristine newness and strength- — being sure 
it is milk from a good, healthy cow, and not 
one-third milk and the rest a compound sold in 
cities for milk. The child that craves fruit, 
from this age on, should have it, for it is but 
the call of Nature for its needs. 



170 WHEN AND HOW. 

DISLIKING SPECIAL ARTICLES OF FOOD. 

If a child dislikes some form of food that is 
known to be healthy and wholesome, especially 
if it is a hereditary dislike — one or both parents 
disliking the same — its use must be followed 
up with care; and if the child can be taught 
to like it, so much the better; if not, substitute 
for it some other articles that will supply its 
place. 

WHEN TO WEAN AN ENFANT. 

The length of time a child should be allowed 
to nurse is a question of importance; and its 
answer must be qualified by the health, strength 
and robustness of the child, and upon its powers 
of digestion. If the infant is healthy, and will 
eat all the food it seems it should eat, and 
digest it well — if it seems to depend more 
upon its food than upon the breast — then it 
should be weaned at one year of age, unless 
that time comes just before or during the hot 
season. It is always safest not to wean an 
infant during the trying heat of our summer 
weather. It is too great a change for the diges- 
tive organs, while they are debilitated by hot 



FOOD AST) ITS ELEMENTS. 171 

days and nights ; a fact of which all are con- 
scious. If the infant is not thus healthy, or 
does not eat well, it is better for it to nurse for 
six months or a year longer. The infant must 
learn to eat well, and show a desire for food, 
before it is ready to lose its native nutriment. 

MILK IS A MIXED DIET. 

"In the case of infants and children, where 
the food subserves the double purpose of main- 
taining activity and growth, there must be extra 
provision in the diet for the development of 
muscular and bony tissues. Milk, though a 
liquid, by its abundance of suets and casein, is 
adapted to this end. But too frequently, after 
weaning, the food of the child is given with no 
reference to this important condition. Sago, 
tapioca, arrowroot, and jellies, which rank lowest 
in nutritive value, with perhaps other substances 
less objectionable, but still inadequately nour- 
ishing, are frequently made use of to the serious 
Injury of the growing constitution." This obser- 
vation <>f Huxley urges us to use a mixed diet 
for all children; as well the infant just weaned 
as tin- older growing child. 



172 WHEN AND HOW. 



SHOULD EAT AT REGULAR TIMES. 

Let the infant, and the child, take its food at 
regular stated times. Arrange those times as 
you ma}- think best, at either once in three or 
four hours; but let it be systematic — at just 
these times every day, and at no other. All 
the involuntary actions of the body are rhythmic, 
and we should learn from this fact, that the 
digestive organs could better act upon food, 
and that all voluntary actions of the body 
would be more exact, if their time of recurrence 
was regular. 

Let the child, in its earliest life, acquire one 
of the first of all physiological principles — 
regularity in work and rest. There is just the 
same amount of time in each revolution of the 
earth. Divide this into equal parts, and use 
always such ones for exercise, and certain others 
for rest ; and at certain periods take nourish- 
ment, and at no others. 

A VERY FOOLISH MOTHER. 

But do not be as foolish as a mother we 
knew, who nursed her babe only three times 
in the twenty-four hours, and would feed it 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 178 

nothing else. She said "'twas no use feeding 
babies oftener than she fed herself;" and soon 
she had no infant to feed. 

Though she was often told of the consequence 
of her course, she thought she knew better than 
the " most learned." This mother was a vege- 
tarian, and did not feed herself upon sufficiently 
nourishing food. She nursed her child as often 
as she was able to do it, and live upon such 
a poor quality of nutriment. She took the 
life of her child, but she did it in ignorance 
— an egotistic ignorance that would not be 
taught. 

DO NOT NURSE AN INFANT WHEN IN A PASSION. 

Never nurse a babe while in a passion of 
anger, or when any of the passions have been 
in recent active exercise. An active passion, 
especially when it has been more than usually 
excited, may have an effect upon the milk that 
will leave an impression on the child, and may 
make him sick at the time. 

FOOD DIVIDED INTO GROUPS. 

Food, in its nutritive properties, is divided, 
by our more recent and practical Ilygienists, 



174 WHEN AND HOW. 

into four kinds or groups, viz. : Proteids, Fats, 
Amyloids, and Minerals. 

PROTEIDS. 

This group of the elements of nutrition is 
composed of Fibrin, which is best represented 
by lean meat; Gluten, which has its type in 
bread, it being the gluey or adhesive property 
of the flour; Albumen, which is fairly repre- 
sented by the white of an egg- } and Casein, 
which is the curd of the milk, or that part 
made into cheese. There are some other unim- 
portant elements in this group, but these are 
sufficient for our purpose, which is to explain 
the nature of food. 

FATS. 

These are found in the composition of both 
animal and vegetable food; but from what- 
ever source they come, they have a similarity 
of composition. Like other forms of food found 
in the animal and the vegetable kingdom, they 
differ in external appearance and in physical 
properties, but are capable of replacing each 
other for purposes of nutrition; and the result- 
ing chyle, chyme and assimilation are the same. 



FOOD AJSD its elements. 175 



A:\rYLorDS. 

This group is composed of Starch, Sugar, aud 
gums, which are principally derived from vege- 
table products, such as the grains, potatoes, 
peas and beans ; and, in one or other of these 
three forms, are largely used for nutrition by all 
animals. Starch is a principal ingredient in 
wheat flour, corn meal, and potatoes. Sugar 
may be made from the animal and from the 
vegetable ; but our chief supply comes from the 
vegetable kingdom, where it is found in saps, 
seeds, and in fruits. 

IIOW THESE GROUPS OF FOOD ARE USED. 

The office of these groups of the nutritive 
elements is to supply the various wants of the 
system of the animal. The proteids are the 
proper tissue makers — being readily converti- 
ble, and used for repairing and building up the 
various tissues of the body. They are the 
nitrogenous elements, and are very nutritious. 

The fats and the, amyloids are the non-nitro- 
genous elements. As these last are largely 
composed of carbon and hydrogen, they were 
supposed to I..- exclusively used for producing 



176 



WHEN AND HOW 



heat for the body. That this is, in the main, a 
fact, is still believed ; and we think that these 
are the various uses that each division of food 
elements is put to, when food is eaten in a ratio 
that will fill the various calls or wants of our 
bodies. 

But in addition to these, the proteids, while 
they are used for the making and repairing of 
tissue, must produce heat in their decomposi- 
tion; and the fats and amyloids, while they 
produce heat, may produce force. A peculiar- 
ity of these groups of food is, they can only be 
obtained by the activity of living beings, either 
animals or plants. 



MINERALS. 

The fourth group is the minerals. These are 
the inorganic elements, as water, and the 
various salts. Water forms far the larger part 
of our bodies, and must be used in some form 
every day. The salts are very numerous and 
common, as the common table salt, the chloride 
of potash, phosphate of lime, etc. 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 177 

A VARIETY OF THESE GROUPS IS BEST. 

The food of man and child should be a mix- 
ture or a coml >ination of all four of these groups 
of food elements. That which Nature has pro- 
vided for the infant animal, as well as the infant 
child, is thus mixed; and by preparing it for 
those unable to prepare for themselves, Nature 
declares it is 1 test for the use of the child. Now 
let us take a lesson from Mother Nature by 
analysing this milk, and so know what she 
thinks is best. 

THE ANALYSIS OF MILK. 

Having analyzed it, we find it is composed of 
casein — one of the first or proteid group, used 
for repairing tissue — about four and one-half 
per cent.; of butter — one of the second group 
of elements — in a proportion of about three 
and one-fourth percent.; of sugar — one of the 
third group, used for supplying heat — about 
four and one-half per cent. ; and of salts — of the 
fourth group — about one-half of one per cent. 
The rest is water, which is also of the fourth 
group. 

This is the food of the growing infant, pre- 

8* 



1 78 WHEN AND HOW. 

pared by that Wise Hand who made humanity, 
and knows its wants. Here we have the vari- 
ety — not to be found in vegetables alone — 
not animal food alone — but in a union of the 
two — a union in most instances called for by 
the appetite. 

MILK AND SOLID FOODS COMPARED. 

We do not find this composition of elements 
in any other article of food. There is usually 
one or more of the elemental)' groups absent. 
The various meats abound in tissue - making 
elements, but are deficient in starch. The vege- 
tables are rich in starch and sugar, but are 
wanting in the tissue-forming properties. Bread 
lias the tissue forming property and the amy- 
loids, but is deficient in fat. 

From this we see how necessary it is to vary 
our diet, if we would supply all our alimentary 
wants. 

THE SOLE USE <>F ONE KIND OF FOOD. 

"Confinement to a single alimentary princi- 
ple, or anv- class of them alone, is sure to be 
followed by disease." The proteids are of the 
most importance, as much the larger part of the 



FOOD AXD ITS ELEMENTS. 1<9 

body is derived from them, and when they are 
used as an exclusive diet will sustain the power 
of life longer than any other class of elements. 
This is shown in the fact, that when they are 
withheld, and fats, starch, sugar, and the min- 
erals supplied abundantly, exhaustion follows 
very rapidly. 

Still the fats and the amyloids are necessary, 
and the body will feel the want of them sooner 
or later, even though the proteids are furnished 
in abundance. Certain forms of disease are sure 
to follow the withholding of any of the common 
varieties of our diet for any length of time. 
Deprive the child of vegetables for a season, 
and he has scurvy. Deprive him of fats, and 
he will have scrofula. Dr. Carpenter, in his 
Physiology, says: "The deficiency of oleagin- 
ous matter seems to lead to the development of 
the scrofulous diathesis." 

EXCESS OF EITHEE FOR A LONG TIME. 

Aii excessive use of either for a long time, 
with a diminution of the other varieties, will 
also produce disease- — as an exclusive diet of 
the proteids will of a surety cause a gouty or 
.•in arthritic diathesis; an excess of fats will pro- 



180 WHEN AND HOW. 

cluce a bilious habit; an excess of the amyloids 
will tend to a rheumatic habit, especially if the 
amyloid class is composed of a poor variety of 
vegetables. 

WHO (AX LIVE ON ALL ANIMAL 0E ALL VEGE- 
TABLE FOOD. 

Though the digestive organs, and the teeth, 
slm\v that man was made for a mixed diet, still 
in the extreme north, where there is perpetual 
cold,many tribes live entirely upon animal food; 
and, on the contrary, in the torrid zone we find 
many races living entirely upon a vegetable diet ; 
and only in the more temperate zone do the 
people live on both animal and vegetable food 
in a fairly mixed proportion. These animal 
eaters of the frigid zone do not acquire the 
scurvy as readily as is done by those who live 
in a temperate climate. This is from the fact 
that they need so much more "combustible 
food," to counteract the extreme depressing 
tendency of the cold in those countries. A 
long-continued abstinence from animal food will 
produce the scurvy, contrary to tin? preconceived 
opinion This disease is quite sure to follow a 
lono- continued abstinence from any one of the 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 181 

elementary classes of food, by those who have 
been accustomed to a variety. 

ANOTHER DIVISION OF FOOD. 

For convenience, food is divided into three 
classes. They are : Animal food, Vegetable food, 
and Auxiliary food. Those classed as animal 
are milk, eggs, and meats, including fish. 

ANIMAL FOOD MILK. 

Milk has already been in part described. The 
percentage of the different elements there given 
was an approximation of average cow's milk. 
The milk of goats and ewes is richer than the 
cow's in solids; and human milk is weaker in 
casein, and has a larger amount of sugar. In 
cities, milk is largely adulterated with water, 
and often with other substances. 

BUTTER AND CHEESE. 

These are the nutritious parts of milk in a 
very concentrated form. Butter is habitually 
used ns ;m accompaniment for bread and starchy 
foods thai arc deficient in fats; and is a help to 
the digestion of such food. Cheese is a very 
nutritious form of food — containing almost 



1S2 WHEN AND HOW. 

entirely tissue - making elements, and is very 
wholesome; but it should be used with a less 
concentrated food. 

EGGS. 

These contain the tissue - making properties 
and the fatty elements. When properly cooked 
they arc very good food, and agree with most 
stomachs ; yet, as they contain none of the amy- 
loids, they should be eaten with foods that sup- 
ply them, as bread and vegetables. 

MEATS. 

From whatever animal this food is taken, it 
is found to be essentially the same in nutritious 
qualities; that is. one can readily be made to 
take the plare of another. Like the egg, they 
all contain the tissue-forming elements, combined 
with fats; and do not contain starch and sugar. 
As an article <>f diet their advantage is in offer- 
ing a large amount of highly concentrated nutri- 
ment in a form easy of digestion, and of ready 
assimilation, when properly cooked. 

"Stall-fed Beef" and " Corn-fed Pork," when 
free from disease, and of a medium fatness, are 
very healthy and economical food: but as they 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 188 

are highly concentrated, and contain none of the 
amyloids, should be eaten with bread, or with 
potatoes, or other starchy food. The muscular 
fiber should be firm, and of a pale reddish color, 
somewhat lighter in the center than on the sur- 
face, and showing no disposition to tear across 
the fibers. The fat should be white, or but 
slightly yellowed, and firm to the touch. The 
pale, moist color marks the young animal, and 
the darker color shows the animal to be older. 

All meats should be free from disagreeable 
odors, and when cut across should show a uni- 
form appearance. Salt meats are not as nutri- 
tious, and have not as pleasant flavor, as fresh ; 
nor are they as easy of digestion. 

FISH. 

Fish are very similar in compositions to meats 
— are rich in salts — the fourth group; and not 
as rich in the first or proteid group. They are 
of easy digestion when fresh; but as they are 
liable to rapid decomposition, should be eaten 
soon after being taken. Salt fish, like salt beef 
and pork, is much inferior to fresh, and much 
more indigestible. 



1S4 WHEN AND HOW. 

V EG ET ABLE FOOD WHEAT 

Of all the varieties of vegetable food, those 
derived from the grains are most important ; 
and among these, wheat ranks first in nutrition 
and ease of digestion. With the exception of 
milk, it is the most perfect form of food, and 
will support life longer, and in a more perfect 
state of health, when used alone, than any 
other. It is composed of all of the four groups 
of aliment, though the third —fat — is in very 
small percentage; and it lias a very small 
amount of water. The coat of the kernel, im- 
mediately below the husk, is rich in gluten or 
vegetable fibrin, and in the center is found the 
starchy part. By the process of grinding, this 
glutinous coat, lying next the bran, is often lost 
by passing with the bran; and as it is of a 
darker color, tin- center that is left makes a 
whiter flour for the loss, though the loss takes 
the most truly nutritions parts. This loss ought 
to be avoided. 

INDIAN CORN. 

Corn contains more fat than any vegetable 
food in common use, and it is also richer in 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 185 

starch ; but it has less of the tissue-making ele- 
ments. Articles of food made from corn should 
be cooked for a long time ; and then it makes 
a very healthy food both for grown persons and 
for the child, especially when they do not eat 
much meat. 

PEAS AND BEANS. 

Peas and beans are very much alike in their 
composition — are rich in all the nutritive ele- 
ments, and more directly adapted to supply the 
wants of the brain and muscle than the other 
varieties of food. They are hard of digestion, 
and should be eaten in small quantities, and 
thoroughly cooked. 

• SUCCULENT VEGETABLES. 

Of these the potato ranks first, and is most 
extensively used. They are composed of the 
third and forth groups of elements, and owing to 
their deficiency in the tissue -forming elements, 
should be used with some of those articles of 
food that contain the first and second groups, 
as in the case of those who use them with meat. 

Turnips, beets, cabbages, and the other varie- 
ties of this class, are of but slight nutritive value, 



186 WHEN AND now. 

and are eaten more as a relish than a strength- 
giving food. They are valuable in costive hab- 
its, and are almost entirely water. 

FRUITS. 

Fruit consists of water and a varying amount 
of sugar, with a small quantity of the salts united 
with some of the organic acids. 

The juices contain an amount of gelatinous 
substance that causes them to jelly. The value 
of fruit depends upon its quality of taste more 
than upon any nourishing or strengthening 
power. They are valuable for their alkaline 
and earthy carbonates, and very useful, when 
eaten in moderate quantities, as safeguards 
against constipation. They are most wholesome 
when cooked, but the seeds, skins, and cores 
should be rejected. 

AUXILIARY FOOD. 

Auxiliary foods arc those used to give relish 
to other food compounds — to give a stimulus 
to the digestive and nervous systems. They are 
useful when used with care, but in excess are 
often very injurious. They are the condiments 
and beverages in common use. 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 18' 



CONDIMENTS. 

Among the condiments are included vinegar, 
pepper, mustard, and their compounds. Vine- 
gar, by increasing the acid of the stomach, may 
assist the gastric juice in digesting the proteid 
form of foods. Pepper is a powerful stimulus 
of the stomach, and will increase the amount of 
gastric juice secreted ; and also the flow of the 
saliva. Its habitual use cannot be recom- 
mended ; and if it is used at all, only the small- 
est quantities are allowable. The same may be 
said of mustard ; its effects are very similar to 
those of pepper. 

Children should not be allowed to acquire a 
taste for them, and they have no natural appe- 
tite for any such heating stimulus. 

BEVERAGES TEA. 

The most common beverages are tea and cof- 
fee. Tea has been so long in use in this country 
that it seems to be an indispensable article of 
diet, ft acts as a gentle stimulus, and does not 
leave a corresponding depression. It increases 
the action of the pulse, and the amount of car- 
bonic acid tin-own off by the lungs. Though 



188 



WHEN AND HOW 



slightly astringent, it is not enough so to produce 
any bad effect. It hastens digestion and is very 
invigorating; but when taken by those unused 
to it, or in excess by those who are habituated 
to its use, it is very apt to induce wakefulness. 
Children should not use it or any auxiliary food; 
and they have no natural appetite for them. 



COFFEE. 



Coffee is very similar in its effects to tea, their 
active properties being very nearly the same, 
though coffee has more nutritious elements. It 
stimulates to digestion, and aids the assimilating 
process. It is enlivening and invigorating to 
both body and mind — drives away fatigue; 
and in its effects — as does tea — tends to dimin- 
ish the liability to disease. 

Both tea and coffee — and alcoholic drinks, 

when taken in small amounts largely diluted 

tend to hinder the waste of the body, and to 
obstruct destructive changes; the body does not 
waste as fast as when they are not used. The 
addition to our meals of a small quantity of 
either of the beverages— more especially coffee 
-will fit us for much greater exertion, on a 
much lower diet, than is possible without them. 



FOOD AXD ITS ELEMENTS. 189 

When they are used, the nutrition of a meal 
seems to last much longer, and we grow hungry 
less rapidly. 

Tea and coffee act in relieving a fatigued man 
or woman far better than any form of alcoholic 
drinks; hut these benefits are not from any 
form of nutrition, but from their power of pre- 
venting the every-day "wear and tear," or the 
waste of our ever-changing bodies. Is there 
not a question as to any real benefit in using 
an atom of our bodies, longer than Nature de- 
signed, by using beverages % Certainly children 
never should. 

FAT FOOD. 

An excess of fat food not only tends to make 
a child obese, but when that excess is more than 
can be consumed or stored, it throws too much 
work upon the liver, and it becomes diseased 
from over- work; or else its secretions from the 
blood arc not sufficient to keep it pure, and then 
we have biliousness, or bile in the blood. These 
are the only evil effects from eating too much 
fet. For these bad results, we are told of the 
" nauseous, greasy mass," fit only for soap. 



190 WHEN AXD HOW. 



PORK. 



We are told that "pork, scrofulous, measly, 
disgusting pork, flesh of the most disgustingly 
filthy animal known, was the source of most of 
the ills of life." Now, some of our would-be 
friends of humanity, in their righteous indigna- 
tion over an excessive use of fats, are going to 
the other extreme. They would leave the im- 
pression that all fat meat is unfit for food ; and 
that no pork Lb fit to be used — and is diseased, 
and giving disease — because the} have found a 
scrofulous hog or two, or some pork that was 
measly, or a bit of the lean men! of a swine 
that had tracliina in it. Now, is this fair? is 
it just \ 

We should not throw upon food that has 
been used for ages, as a staple article of diet, 
the stigma that only belongs to certain diseased 
imits. It would be just as right to question the 
virtue of every man and woman, because, for- 
sooth, a tew are known to have diseased morals. 
Away with this disposition to sacrifice all for 
the sins of a few ! Occasionally we find wheat 
diseased, and producing a fungus growth. Shall 
we for this reason say that all wheat is unfit for 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 191 

use as food? We sometimes find fruit filled 
with parasites. Why not, upon the same author- 
ity, and with equal justice, cry out against the 
use of fruit ( No ! let all food stand upon its 
value as food in a sound, healthy state — and 
none other are here represented — for we should 
never, under any circunistances, use any food of 
any kind, either vegetable or animal, that is not 
healthy in its growth, and that has not been 
preserved perfectly sound and wholesome. 

But let us never discard a class of food upon 
the ground of finding some that is diseased ; if 
we do we will have to throw away all food. 
Pork, and all animal food, is sometimes in a 
diseased state ; and for this reason we need 
to be careful that ours comes from a healthy 
animal. 

CHILDREN- OFTEN CRAVE FAT FOOD. 

Children, and quite small ones too, often crave 
food that is fat -giving — will immediately leave 
almost anything they are eating, for a piece of 
fat pork or beef, and, if allowed to have it, will 
suck it with as much enjoyment as it is possible 
I'm- them to show; and will sometimes cat an 
enormous amount of it when it has been kept 



192 WHEN AND HOW. 

from them. Is there no adaptation of supply 
and demand in this love for fat food? This 
child, one or two years old, has not acquired 
an appetite for anything ; but only hungers to 
supply the demands of the body for growth and 
waste. Do we not, then, see that Nature is 
calling for fat as a need ? 

FAT -EATING CHILDREN GENERALLY HEALTHY. 

Children who have such an appetite are usu- 
ally strong and healthy — those who have had 
their appetites gratified with a mother's kind 
judgment. Give the child his fat food in mode- 
ration, :i- lie will take it if he has it every day, 
and we will see him keep healthy. Refuse the 
fat food his appetite calls for, and he will eat 
largely of sugar and sweets, and of vegetables 
that contain starch. Of these he must eat a 
larger bulk, and his digestive organs labor 
harder to assimilate the amount of carbon his 
body wants. This over- work may affect the 
digestion, when, if he had been fed fat meat, 
as Nature call<'<l for it, this more concentrated 
food would not have over- worked his digestive 
organs. 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 193 



EATING CANDY AND SUGAR. 

The child often has a strong desire for sweet 
foods and sweetmeats. This shows a want of 
carbon in the system — that he is needing a 
large amount of it. When the little child so 
earnestly pleads for candy — his idea of the sugar 
he so much covets — feed it to him ; only being 
careful of the quality, and the quantity he shall 
use at any one time. There is an instinctive feel- 
ing about these wants ; and if they are not grati- 
fied in some form, the child does not fill that 
want of its body, and this vacancy will in after- 
life tell against his health in some way. 

Many are the cries against eating candies 
and sugar, as making the child bilious and 
black, or that it rots the teeth ; but the want of 
it makes more puny children than the use of it 
in any fomi ever injured, the want of it rots 
more teeth than were ever hurt by its use. 
Then let us feed them on the rational principle 
of a demanding appetite. 

FAT -EATING PREVENTS CONSUMPTION. 

Dr. Huxley, in his work upon Hygiene, says : 
" It is believed that a lack of oleaginous ele- 



194 WHEN AND HOW. 

l) units in diet predisposes to consumption." The 
immediate cause of this disease, as has already 
been observed, is an abortive or imperfect nutri- 
tion, tubercle being produced instead of healthy 
tissue. 

The seeds of consumption are most generally 
sown iu the system in 'youth, when there is a 
double demand upon nutrition for current waste 
and Bteady growth. When there is sufficient 
proteid matter to nourish the structures, some 
oilier condition must be wanting. Eminent 
physiologists have lately maintained that the 
faulty nutrition which results in tubercle is 
caused by a deficiency in oily substances; and 
therefore such of those fatty substances as are 
most easily digested and absorbed have been 
indicated as remedies. 

Cod-liver oil has come into use for this pur- 
pose. Dr. Hughs Bennett, who first introduced 
this oil to the notice of the public, states that 
butcher-, cooks, oilmen, tanners, and others who 
are constantly coming in contact with fatty mat- 
ter, are less liable than others to tubercular 
diseases; and Dr. Simpson has observed that 
"children and young persons employed in wool 
factories, where large quantities of oil are daily 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 195 

used, are generally exempt from scrofula and 
pulmonary consumption. These facts would 
indicate that even the absorption of fatty mat- 
ter through the skin may powerfully influence 
nutrition." 

Dr. Bennett says, that " to prevent consump- 
tion during youth, indulgence in indigestible 
articles of food should be avoided, especially 
pastry, unripe fruit, salted provisions, and acid 
drinks; while the habit of eating a certain 
quantity of fat should be encouraged, and, if 
necessary, made imperative." Dr. Carpenter 
observes: "There is a strong tendency and 
increasing reason to believe that a deficiency 
of oleaginous matter, in a state fit for appropri- 
ating by the nutritive process, is a fertile source 
of diseased action, especially that of a tubercu- 
lous character ; and that the habitual use of it 
in large quantities would operate favorably in 
the prevention of such maladies, as cod-liver oil 
unquestionably does in the cure." 

A most remarkable example of this is pre- 
sented in the population of Iceland, which, not- 
withstanding the concurrence of -every one of 
the circumstances usually considered favorable 
to the scrofulous diathesis, enjoys a most 



196 WHEN AND HOW. 

remarkable immunity from it — without any 
assignable cause other than the peculiar oleagin- 
ous character of the diet usually employed. 

Dr. Hooker, in a report on the diet of the 
sick, says: "1st. Of all persons between the 
ages of fifteen and twenty -two years, more than 
one-fifth eat no fat meat. 2d. That of the per- 
sons at the age of forty-five, all, except less than 
one in fifty, habitually use fat meat. 3^7. Of 
those who have abstained, a few acquire an 
appetite for it, and live to a good old age, while 
a great majority die of consumption before forty- 
five. 4///. Of persons dying of consumption 
between tlie ages of fifteen and forty-five, nine- 
tenths, at least, have never used fat meats." 

From the above facts and opinions, given by 
some of our first and most scientific physicians, 
hygienists, and physiologists — those who have 
devoted a long life to this stud}', we are led to 
believe that a more general use of meats, espe- 
cially fat meats, would largely prevent its devel- 
opment in those who have inherited it. 

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS. 

Out' own observations, dining some twenty 
years, in the practice of medicine, is in harmony 



FOOD AND its elements. 197 

with the above opinions. We have observed 
that in the rural districts, those children who 
were fond of fat meats were the healthy ones, 
and remained so ; and that those who were scro- 
fulous, or died early of consumption, were those 
who did not use and relish fat meats, or did not 
use them from false instructions received from 
"would-be philanthropists," called vegetarians. 
Our observations have been that no class of 
people were more liable to generate and entail 
scrofula and consumption than the low-fed vege- 
tarians — those who believe the animal was 
never made to eat, but that all our food must be 
gathered from the vegetable kingdom; and no 
class are as free from generating it, or entailing 
it upon their issue, as those people who eat 
largely of beef and pork, and all forms of animal 
food; and more especially so, if they were 
eaters of the fat parts of the animal. 

CHILDREN THAT HAVE NO APPETITE FOR FAT 
FOOD. 

Some children seem to have no appetite for 
fat food, but rather dislike it in any form ; and 
unless such children eat very largely of starch, 
or sugar elements, or use com, the great fat-pro- 



198 WHEN AND HOW. 

ducing cereal, they will surely show disease in 
some form. Children who refuse all fat food 
are not healthy; and as they grow older will 
show plainly this unsoundness. A truly healthy 
child will some time like fat food ; and it is a 
very rare circumstance to find a healthy child 
that will not eat sugar any and every time. We 
should tiy and form an appetite for fat food in 
the child who has none, as a safeguard against a 
tendency towards consumption; just as the phy- 
sician will feed his patient on cod-liver oil to 
cure or postpone the disease. 

OONBTJMFnOW PREVENTIVES, IN BRIEF. 

A pure air — wholesome food — a large part 
of which shall be animal food of both fat and 
lean fibres — warm clothing for the limbs as 
well as for the bodies — and clean skins, will 
save every child from acquiring consumption, 
and pie vent most who inherit it from develop- 
ing it. 

WHY WE SHOULD STUDY HYGIENE. 

Are there not enough reasons in this one dis- 
ease why parents should give the study of 
Hygiene more attention \ Medicine does not 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 199 

cure it — it is hereditary; and our children will 
inherit a tendency to it if we are so unfortunate 
as to have it in our systems. If we only knew 
the way to prevent it, we could not only prevent 
our children from developing such a tendency, 
and thus, again, their children, but we would 
save the suffering and expense of a tedious sick- 
ness. Let us use every available means to raise 
healthy children, or let us raise none. Let us 
not be the cause of introducing any more suffer- 
ing into this world ; especially when it must be 
entailed upon those who are innocent of pro- 
ducing it. 



CHAPTER VI 

Clothing and Cleanliness. 

CLEAN ANDIALS A STORY. 

AS we were spending a few hours with a 
patient at a farm-house, the farmer asked 
us to walk out and see his pigs ; to which we 
readily assented, having heard that he had the 
"neatest" and best hogs in the vicinity. On a 
little elevation, a short distance one side of his 
house, we found a small but very neat sty, in 
which were two of the purest white shoats we 
had ever seen. He immediately stepped into 
the pen, and, taking a common horse -brush, 
began to brush and rub them with it, to the 
great satisfaction of said porkers, shown by the 
frequent "ugh, ugh, 1 ' arching back, and appa- 
rent jealousy of " the other pig," when he did 
not receive the grooming. 
200 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 201 

Their bristles and skin were white, and looked 
as pure as the new-fallen snow, while the straw 
of their bed appeared, to the eye, neat enough 
for humanity. 

"How d'ye like the looks o' them?" asked 
my fanner friend. "Well, they look good 
enough to eat," was our reply. In conversation 
with him we learned that he was in the habit 
of brushing them thoroughly every day, and of 
washing them once every week; and that he 
thought they grew enough faster, and on enough 
less food, to pay him amply for all his pains and 
trouble, besides the pleasure of having neat, 
sweet porkers for his pork-barrel. The scurf 
so common on the skin of hogs was all removed 
— not left, as a dirty shirt, to act like a plaster, 
by being re-absorbed into the circulation of the 
skin. 

ITS APPLICATION. 

The thought came to us : If so much improve- 
ment can be made in a hog by cleanliness, and 
nothing but cleanliness, will not greater cleanli- 
ness help the physical structure of man in the 
same ratio? Oh ! then you consider it an insult 
to be compared to a hog? But let us say to 



202 WHEN AND HOW. 

you, that there are many human skins that are 
not as pure, or as sweet, as the skin of the hog- 
that is allowed to do as it chooses; released 
from the close confinement of the pen, where it 
can rub and chafe when it wishes ; and wash in 
pure water whenever its instincts call for it. 

Man, who can do as he will — go and come 
at his own bidding — who is never shut away 
from water, and the means of using it as he will, 
both upon his person and upon his clothes, will 
often go — must I say it? — a lifetime without 
once using water upon his back, to remove what 
would be scurf as thick as is seen on the back 
of the hog, were there bristles to keep it from 
falling off. If our eyes deceive us as to the 
cleanliness of our neighbor, our eyes and nose, 
together, will be sufficient evidence of the total 
want of the use of water. 

ANIMALS, CLEJlN AND UNCLEAN, COMPARED. 

But we need not take the hog as evidence 
that cleanliness is profitable — take the horse. 
Why does the groom brush and curry the horse 
an hour every day ( Do you say it is to keep 
him smooth and clean X It is time, looks are a 
part, but only a part, of the gain ; but if he did 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 203 

not do better — keep in better condition on less 
food — he would not look so much better. The 
practical stable-man will tell you that the well- 
groomed horse will keep in condition on less 
food, and that he will be stronger and more 
active — in fact, in a better state of health. 

As evidence, compare horses that are well 
groomed with those that are not. The differ- 
ence can not only be seen, but it can be felt, and 
smelled. The odor of the skin of an ungroomed 
horse is far stronger than that of one which is 
thoroughly curried and brushed every day. 

We are proud of the good looks of our horse 
— we think his strength valuable ; and we dis- 
pise a sickly horse — we think the man who 
will not take good care of his horse a greater 
bmte than the animal, and say, " he ought not 
to have a horse." Are there no applications 
of these ideas to parents, who have children 
that are dependent upon them for the habits 
they are to form, as much as they are for what 
they were when born \ 

THE ANATOMY OF THE SKIN. 

That we may more plainly sec the necessity 
of keeping the child's skin clean, let us study 



204 WHEN AND HOW. 

its anatomy a little — enough to show us what 
there is on the skin that ought to be washed off. 
It is filled with little glands, called sweat glands. 
They are found in all parts of the skin, hut more 
thickly in some places than in others ; and they 
consist of little coils of tubing, convoluted in 
the form of a cork-screw as they come up to the 
surface, and are microscopic in size. 

SEVEN MILLIONS OF THESE GLANDS. 

When straightened out they are only about 
one-fourth of an inch in length. But there are 
an average of some three thousand five hundred 
and twenty-eight of these glands to every square 
inch of surface on our hands, where they are the 
most abundant. This, multiplied by one-fourth 
of an inch, will give us eight hundred and 
eighty-two inches, or about seventy-three feet in 
length of this tubing, to the square inch on our 
hands. On a full-grown man's body, Dr. E. 
Wilson, the great anatomist, estimates an aver- 
age of some twenty-eight hundred of these pores 
to the square inch, and about twenty-five hun- 
dred square inches surface on the body. If we 
multiply these together, we will have seven 
millions of these glands on our body, if it is 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 20.") 

of the average size and formation, with that 
number of open mouths called pores, from Avhich 
an excretion is constantly, though insensibly, 
passing. 

TWENTY -EIGHT MILES OF TUBING. 

As each gland has an average length, when 
straightened out, of about one-fourth of an inch, 
four of them will make one inch in length ; con- 
sequently we have one million seven hundred 
and fifty thousand inches, or one hundred and 
forty-five thousand eight hundred and thirty- 
three feet, or nearly twenty-eight miles of this 
tubing in our skins, constantly throwing off the 
waste, effete, and foul matters for which the 
body has no further use. 

As we have already said, this excretion is 
usually insensible ; yet its total will amount to 
a pound or two a day ; and from persons who 
sweat much it is often double that amount. 

THESE TUBES ARE SEWERS, AND THE EXCRETION 

SEWERAGE. 

These glands can be considered only as sewers 
of the body, and the matter thrown off as sew- 
erage. On the child, in whose interest we are 



206 WHEN AND HOW. 

writing, the number of glands is supposed to "be 
the same; but it is plainly seen the)' must be 
much smaller. 

Then, if we have seven millions of these sew- 
erage glands in our skins, and our children have 
the same, can we not see good reason for using 
water freely — for always remembering our 
ablutions, and those of our child \ 

WHERE TO FTND ITS ODORS. 

Were you never in a close room occupied by 
one person, or in a large one occupied by many, 
who never washed their skins, and almost never 
washed their shirts or under-garments, but wore 
them on and on, until the eye was not the only 
offended member of your organs of sense? — 
until you would almost have to hold your nose 
t<> make it endure the punishment it Mas receiv- 
ing ? Did you never take a little child in your 
arms, with perhaps a clean dress on the outside, 
and a face and hands that had been washed — 
since you arrived — on purpose to kiss you, that 
you thought — when von got the odor — w^as 
not so mild but that you ought to have "smelled 
it a mile \ " 

Did you never dance with partners who ap- 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 207 

peared, to the eye, quite tastefully dressed, and 
only undeceived you when they became warm, 
after which you turned your nose the other 
way? The odor you got at such times came 
from the decomposing sewerage of these sweat 
glands ; probably the most unhealthy perfumery 
possible for a human being to breathe. 

THE UNCLEANLY MOTHER. 

But what will we say of a mother who will 
let her own person go thus uncleanly, and also 
let her child's skin remain unwashed, and under- 
wear uncleaned, both mother and child, skin and 
under-clothes, all unclean and impure, until every 
one in a room where they are will be conscious 
of it by what they learn through their olfactory 
organs ? 

The most we can here say is, that she must 
be very ignorant of the effect that such unclean- 
liness will have upon both her own health, and 
the health of her infant kept close to her person. 
We do not believe there are mothers who are so 
utterly regardless of their children's welfare — 
who have so little maternal love for their little 
charges — as knowingly thus to injure them. A 
mother's love for her infant is too strong to 



208 WHEN AND HOW. 

allow her to neglect it. She does not know 
that the foul secretions from the child's skin, 
which have saturated its under-clothes, already 
worn far too long, act like a plaster, irritating 
the skin, which, in turn, re-absorbs the secre- 
tions; which, re -absorbed secretions, like any 
other poison, depress the mental powers, or 
reduce the physical stamina, by the over-exertion 
required to throw off the poison, thus hinder- 
ing the building up of the body, or preventing 
it from being finely developed. 

THE HEALTHY DIRTY CHILD. 

But you say that very many very dirty chil- 
dren are quite healthy, and you do not see why 
they are not as healthy as clean ones. 

Did yon ever compare a dozen dirty families 
with a dozen clean ones, as to their health? 
Then <1<> not speak of one child as compared 
with another; for we admit that a dirty boy 
with good entailment, and all the other hygienic 
points properly cared for, may be more healthy 
than a clean boy who has inherited that which 
tends to make him diseased — that is shut up 
in a close room where he is breathing a dirty 
atmosphere all the time. 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 209 

THE SOIL IS NOT POISONOUS DIRT. 

We do not include the soil, dust, or any of 
the accretions from the earth, when they are 
washed off eveiy day, among the dirty poisons 
that so much injure the child. These are not 
poisonous, nor are they directly injurious ; and 
keeping the child away from the necessary out- 
door air is a thousand times worse than their 
indirect injuries. 

But the accumulation upon the skin of foul 
vegetable and animal matter, and, above all, the 
effete matter of the child's own body, either 
from the kidneys, bowels, or skin, are very inju- 
rious, directly and indirectly. What would our 
boy, that was so healthy in his dirt, have been 
had he been kept clean — had he never suffered 
the depressing influence of filth ? Answer this, 
while we tell you that there is twice as much 
sickness in the dirty family as in the clean one, 
other things being equal. 

REASONING WITHOUT ALL THE FACTS. 

We reason without all the data when we 
con i pare the health of one of our very neat 
"house-plant" children, who are not allowed 



210 WHEN AND HOW. 

out of doors — who are never permitted to roll 
and tumble up and down the knolls of the 
lawn, because it would soil his clothes— with 
one of those ragged, little, dirty rascals, who is 
allowed to " roam wheresoe'r he may," and tum- 
ble over and around in healthy exercise, in the 
sunlight and pure air of all out-doors. 

This dirty child has many advantages to bal- 
ance the disadvantage of a dirty skin; while 
the clean boy has many disadvantages to bal- 
ance the advantage of cleanliness. 

KEEP CLE AX WITH WATER, NOT BY RESTRAINT. 

Then do not keep a child clean by restraining 
him, but keep him clean with water. Wash 
them frequently, and then let them have the 
same out-door habits that they had when we 
called them dirty. If they would 1 »e so healthy, 
do so well, while carrying so much that smelt 
so strong, certainly they will be a marvel of 
growth and strength when relieved of it. 

If we are to be careless of an)' part of the 
child's appearance, let it be that concerning 
which we are usually the most particular — the 
part we see — the outside clothes. While we 
are wont to change these often, we forget the 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 211 

child's shirt, and we leave that on through the 
whole week; and we have seen children who 
have worn them until they were worn off. We, 
almost all of us, will leave the undergarments 
on without a thought of their purity, and 
change the child's outer dress and apron every 
time it is soiled so the eye can observe it. 

A DIRTY SKIN SMELLS BAD. 

We do not think that, though the eye cannot 
see the untidy under-clothing, the olfactory 
organ takes cognizance of it, when its percep- 
tions are not blunted by a constant use of such 
perfume. For looks' sake we make our child a 
"whited sepulchre," — clean as far as the eye 
can penetrate, but just within, it — well, it 
smells bad, at least. 

A FOIL SKIN' TAKES FROM THE FORCES OF LLFE. 

If this foulness of the skin does not make the 
child sick, it certainly will take a share of the 
forces of lii'c to counteract the surely poisonous 
effects of what is re-absorbed and passes again 
into the blood, from which it was removed as 
effete matter. 

The effete secretions and excretions, when left 



212 WHEN and now. 

upon the skin, are as positively absorbed into 
the blood from which they have been thrown 
out, as is the external medical application we bo 
often use, and are so sure to see the effect of. 
Whatever the application is that we make to 
tlie skin, if it is kept moist, some of it will be 
absorbed and passed into the circulation, there 
producing its legitimate effects — be the applica- 
tion a hop fomentation with its anodyne effect, 
chloroform liniment with its anaesthetic influ- 
ence, or the foul, sweat -begummed shirt, with 
its depressing^ sedative influence. 

THE BATH AM» CLEAN I LOTHES ARE EXIIILA- 

K ATI NO. 

Every man, woman, and child, who has ever 
tried it, knows the pleasant, exhilarating energy 
that is giveD 1»\ a good bath and clean clothes. 

. 

The open pores, relieved of the sticky mass thai 
has gammed up their mouths, begin anew the 
work of carrying off the effete matters from the 
body; and with a clean garment next the skis 
there is nothing to be re-absorbed that will pro- 
duce depression. 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 213 

OTHER BENEFITS FROM THE USE OF WATER. 

Besides cleanliness there are other benefits to 
be received from the daily use of water upon the 
skin of children. It will strengthen the nerv- 
ous system ; and is one of the best preventives 
against " taking cold " and having coughs. 

HOW TO KEEP THE SKIN CLEAN BATHS. 

Having seen that a clean skin is very bene- 
ficial for the child, let us look at the more 
practical part — how to keep it clean. 

In early lite, that is, in early infancy, all chil- 
dren are very susceptible to cold — to any influ- 
ence that will reduce their temperature ; there- 
fore, babies, during their first few months, should 
be used to warm or tepid baths. The warm 
bath for the infant should be about 96° or 98° 
Fahrenheit, and the tepid bath from 80° to 88°. 

Every morning the infant should be put into 
a warm bath, and allowed to remain there from 
three to five minutes ; and this should be done 
in a warm room, never in a cold one. Gradually 
tin- temperature of the bath may be reduced, as 
the child grows older, to the same temperature 
as the room; but it must be done gradually. 



2X4 WHEN AND HOW. 

The use of cold water must be reserved for 
grown persons. Some parents are in the habit 
of plunging their infants into a cold bath, think- 
ing it will harden them; than which there never 
was a greater mistake. The evening, in addi- 
tion to the morning bath, induces sleep; and 
if a child is delicate in constitution, an evening 
bath is especially useful. The addition of a 
spoonful or two of common salt will make it 
still more invigorating. 

The bath should not be used immediately 
after the child has taken nourishment ; for such 
an external application, while the process of 
digestion is concentrating the blood internally, 
is liable to produce congestions. Care should 
always be taken not to let the wet skin be dried 
in atmospheric currents; and after the child is 
properly " immersed," it should not be taken 
out into the air until it is through with its ablu- 
tions for that time; then it should be taken in 
a warm blanket and quickly wiped dry, then 
rubbed until the skin lias a ruby-red color. 

FRICTION on GROOMING. 

For this purpose we should use a soft piece 
of linen, or still better, perhaps, a soft piece of 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 215 

flannel, which produces a gentle friction of the 
skin — a kind of grooming of great value in 
bringing the blood out to the surface, thus 
equalizing the circulation. As the infant grows 
older, and becomes more inured to baths, it may 
receive more of the air while taking them ; and 
precautions very necessary when quite young 
and feeble, may be gradually omitted ; and, 
finally, when the child is a year or two old, 
quite cool baths may be used ; but even then the 
wiping dry and grooming process must not be 
forgotten. At four or five years of age the baths 
may be used only every other da)' ; and the use 
of the sponge -bath may be substituted for the 
ordinary bath, followed by brisk rubbings. 

THE USE OF SOAP. 

Do not use much soap in the ablutions of 
your children, for it is very irritating to the 
skin, and is not needed to remove the secretions 
of the sweat glands. They are soluble in water; 
and the secretions of the hair follicles, of an oily 
nature, should not be removed, as they are to 
keep the skin smooth and soft — are for the good 
of the skin, and not sewerage of the body. 

When the skin is very foul — which should 



216 WHEN AND HOW. 

not be allowed — a little very bland soap may 
be used ; care being taken to wash it all off. 

THE ART OF PRESERVING LIFE. 

Among the arts of preserving life and health, 
care of the skin should be ranked as of the first 
importance; and the benefits derived from keep- 
ing the skin clean, active, and soft, should not 
be withheld from the child. If it is properly 
used, the bath will never increase any internal 
irritation, but tends to check it by driving it 
to the surface, when the active pores will soon 
expel it from the body. 

CLEANLINESS SAVES USING CASTOR OIL AND 
DRUGS. 

Thu9 ii saves the use of active drugs, cathartic 
pills, and castor oil — all of which are injurious 
in a certain degree, even though used by physi- 
cians of good inherent ability and sound educa- 
tion. The use of the cleansing- bath is a frequent 
preventive of the numerous ailments of infancy 
and childhood. 

"The daily employment of the bath, and 
scrupulous attention to the cleanliness of the 
person and clothing, would materially lessen the 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 217 

demand for purgative medicines and soothing 
syrups." 

DISEASE OF TILE SKTN PREVENTED. 

Childhood is a time of life particularly favor- 
able for humors and skin eruptions, and for this 
reason care for the skin is of more importance 
at this period of life than any other; as most 
of these troubles may then be avoided, by the 
above-mentioned scrupulous care and cleanliness 
— the activity of the sweat glands carrying such 
humors out of the blood, when they are not 
obstructed by impurities, or irritated by a con- 
tinual contact with, or the re-absorption of, j^oi- 
sonous excretions. 

"The appearance of these the mother ought 
to regard as a great calamity, for they are often 
difficult of cure, and render the child an object 
of disgust. She ought also to look upon them 
as a mischievous consequence of the neglect of 
bhose Laws of health which it is her duty to 
learn and observe." 

THE CULTURE <>F TTTE SKIN VERY IMPORTANT. 

A.8 we believe ili<' care and cleanliness of the 
skin to )>e of the first importance in the u liow" 
10 



21 S WHEN AND HOW. 

to raise health}' children, we have used this 
amount of space in trying to show the " whys 
and wherefores." We have tried to show 
that a clean, well-groomed skin is one of the 
best preventions against disease, acquired or 
inherited. If we have failed, it is not from 
a want of interest in this truly important ele- 
ment in the principle of "prevention better 
than cure." 

MOTHERS SHOULD ATTEND TO THE CHILD'S ABLU- 
TIONS. 

But before we leave this subject, another spe- 
cial word to mothers: Never trust these ablu- 
tions to any one but yourself. You, who alone 
love "ray baby" with a maternal love — you, to 
whose heart it lies the nearest — are the one who 
should watch it, and see that it is done right 
Nurses inmj <lo it well, and they may not. You 
wiU <1<> it well, if a true woman. 

CLOTHE A.0C0EDING TO THE SENSATIONS. 

In the matter of clothing for our children, we 
should use their sensations as guides — the same 
as we would follow the sense of hunger in feed- 
ing. Consult what is for the child's comfort, 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. '2 19 

and give just enough to keep away all feelings 
of cold or uncomfortable chilliness. 

THE SO-CALLED " HARDENING- PROCESS." 

Do not attempt the so-called " hardening pro- 
cess," by which some parents expect to accus- 
tom their children to endure cold, or you may 
toughen them too hard to stay in this life — 
they ma}' find it too hard to be hardened, and, 
like the Irishman's horse that he was teaching 
to live without eating, "that up and died just 
as he had him learned," they may " up and die " 
just before you have them hardened. 

The arguments used for the hardening pro- 
cess are very superficial. They are all based 
upon the fact that we see little urchins, half- 
dressed, barefoot, and all round on cold days, 
and we find them healthy ; therefore, if we 
would undress our children, and take their 
stockings off, and turn them into the street, 
they would be stout and healthy. It is forgot- 
ten that those half-dressed children are in many 
other respects very favorably placed. Sound 
parentage, good, plain food, and an appetite for 
it, and, above nil, plenty of pure out-door air, 
with healthful exercise in the gambols of out- 



220 WHEN AND HOW. 

door life. It is forgotten that the forces of their 
bodies are not used up in mental toil, or in 
throwing off inherited disease, or in combating 
the impure atmosphere of a close room. 

"For aught that appears to the contrary, 
their good health may be maintained, not in 
consequence of, but in spite of, their deficient 
clothing. 11 We believe that children who have 
stamina enough to withstand such " hardening " 
influences, would, if they were removed from 
them, be much more thoroughly developed. 
For when a child has an inherent strength sum- 
cient to withstand such an amount of cold, he 
bears it at the expense of some other develop- 
ment, as growth, mental vigor, quality of the 
material or intellectual growth, or in the length 
of his life. It takes vital power to counteract 
the poisonous effect of a foul skin — it takes 
vital power to counteract the effect of impure 
atmosphere; and it takes a large amount of vital 
force to counteract the cold of our climate; and 
on the child the cold is most severe in its effects. 

OTJR OWN AND OUR CHILDREN^ CLOTHES COMPARED. 

Then how necessary it is to clothe the child 
so that it will not suffer from the chills of too 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 221 

rapid radiation. We dress ourselves, when we 
are full grown, and have only the natural waste 
of our bodies to supply from nourishment, with 
thick garments, and never expose our legs, arms 
or shoulders to a biting wind or frost ; and 
would think that man crazy who would dress 
his body warm, and go out with naked arms 
and neck, and almost naked legs. 

We grown-up people cannot bear it, though 
we do not radiate heat as fast as the child, and 
have been more inured to cold, by meeting cold 
seasons for years, and have not so much use for 
our heat-producing food. Still, when it is cold 
we must dress with clothes upon clothes — with 
furs and mufflers. 

DRESSING THE LITTLE BOY. 

And while we are doing all this for ourselves, 
let us watch the dressing of the little boy or 
girl to go out with their parents, dressed as just 
described. Perhaps the boy's body is dressed 
warm enough, but his arms are bare, his neck 
and shoulders arc bare, his knees and legs 
below are covered with only one thickness — 
and that perhaps only a. cotton stocking — his 
thighs have on panis of only one thickness — 



2'2'2 WHEN AND now. 

and that usually no thicker than his lather's 
drawers over which he wears pants some three 
or four times warmer than his hoy's pants. 
Does the boy complain of cold, he is told to 
run, or that he is young and can hear it. 

DRESSING TIIE LITTLE GIRL. 

But how is it with the young girl's dress? 
Arms, neck, shoulders, all hare; and the legs 
no Letter clothed than the hoy's; with the 
lower portion of the body still worse. 

TRY IT, FATHERS. 

We would say to fathers, that if they have 
any doubt as to the injurious consequences of 
thus exposing the limbs of their children, they 
can try it on their own persons; remembering, 
while they are so trying it, that they are Letter 
able to hear it than their son is — that their 
bodies are matured and hardened with age, so 
that they do not feel a* pain so readily a- a 
child — and that though they suffer, the child 
feels the same amount of pain with a far deej)er 
sensation — and that the plastic, easily moulded 
frame of the hoy is impressed by every such 
exposure — that it will be different from what 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 223 

it would have been had he been dressed with 
sufficient clothing to keep his body warm. 

No, fathers, you will never thus expose your- 
selves ! Then do not, in the name of humanity, 
allow your boy to be thus clothed in accordance 
with a pestilential fashion. 



DRESS COMPARED. 

"We would ask mothers if they think the bal- 
let girls in full dress — or rather undress — for 
the stage, are clothed warm enough for every- 
day life ; or for evening or morning airing ; or 
for the biting winds of a colder day? We 
would ask them if they think their arms, legs, 
and in fact both, extremities of their bodies, 
are sufficiently clothed for withstanding a cold 
air, or a chilly wind ? Yet you dress your little 
daughters- — the beauty and the loveliness of 
your family — with immature bodies, in fact all 
in the feeble state of rapid growth — in this 
way, contrary to all rules of physical life. 

Do you think the ballet girl needs more 
clothing for her health, before she goes out \ 
Then remember, the next time you dress your 
little girl, on a cold day, for chinch, that she 



224 WHEN AND HOW. 

needs as much warm clothing as any one ; and 
do not sin against her more than you sin against 
yourself, when dressing. 

Do you think the ballet girl needs more cov- 
ering for decency's sake I Then remember, and 
do not dress your timid little girl as indecently ; 
for her modesty is yet unabashed — not all gone 
— and her virtue as pure as the mountain snow. 
Do not make the first stain or her purity with 
your own hand Keep her pure and sweet as 
long as you can. 

MORE NECESSARY TO KEEP THE CHILD WARM. 

If we believe, or know, it is necessary for our 
own persons t<> be well unaided against cold— 
if we find that our limbs must be covered with 
garments or suffer with cold ; and further, if we 
realize the fact that a child is more sensitive to 
cold than a grown person, we shall try and dress 
our children for their comfort and health; we 
will not let them go chilled so that their skins 
will be shrivelled all up, or with papillae promi- 
nent like o-oose-skin — we will try and invite 
the blood to the surface, by suitably warm 
clothing, and by a well-kept skin; which shall 
be pure, sweet, and wholesome. 



CLOTHING- AND CLEANLINESS. 22 O 

We will consider that we are saving our chil- 
dren from many of those diseases that are the 
result of hard colds — that Ave are doing that 
which will tend to make them more healthy in 
childhood, and lay a foundation for a strong and 
vigorous maturity; able to say — at four- score 
years — that they have "fought a good right," 
and fulfilled the faith of their parents, and 
henceforth there is laid up for them the reward 
of good physical ability. 

VALUE IS A RETURN FOR LABOR. 

We never expect to have anything of value, 
in this life, without giving strict care and atten- 
tion to it. If Ave acquire wealth, or honor, 
or morality, they are only obtained by our own 
efforts. If we raise a good and valuable horse, 
or the finest sheep, stock, swine, or fowls, or the 
best grain, or the finest fruit, berries, or vegeta- 
bles — if we invent any machinery or implement 
of great worth, we do it by using our best efforts. 
They are the reward of thought and study — 
the return for labor. May Ave not say that 
good, sound children — of fine physical and 
mental power — do not conic by chance? 

We believe it is as possible to raise a boy to 
10* 



226 WHEN AND HOW. 

a definite standard as it is a horse. We believe 
it is possible to teach a boy habits of cleanliness 
that will last him as long as he lives. We 
believe that the cleansing bath, and warm, suit- 
able clothing, will do much towards making 
our children what Ave want them to be; and 
certainly, if they help a little, it is our duty to 
use them. We have no right to omit anything 
that will help to make our boys and girls better 
as boys and girls, or as men and women. 

OVER-DRESSING THE THROAT. 

It is as wrong to over-dress a child as it is to 
under -dress it; and we often sec some parts all 
muffled up, as the neck and throat, while other 
parts arc under- dressed. This will cause sore 
throats ; and we think one reason for the great 
prevalence of throat disease, among the people 
of this age, is this custom of wrapping up the 
throat in tippets and furs, while the extremities 
are left almost without care. We should strive 
to dress the body and limbs uniformly. 

SHOULD WEAR FLANNEL NEXT THE SKIN. 

Flannel is surely the best cloth to wear next 
the skin during all our variable weather through 



CLOTHING AXD CLEANLINESS. '2'27 

the year, and we would advise its use from 
earliest infancy up to mature age — changing 
from thick to thin, and thin to thick, as the 
seasons require it. 

It is true that cotton, in warm weather, is 
very good, and will then do ; but with a climate 
that allows the thermometer to vaiy from 25° 
to 50° in twenty-four hours, and one-half that 
amount in one hour, we would advise cloth to 
be worn next to the skin that will not conduct 
our manufactured heat away, or feel saturated 
with moisture when it receives a slight increase 
of the usually insensible perspiration. We 
would advise the use of flannel because it will 
not leave a sense of chilliness upon the child's 
body, as will other clothes that are better con- 
ductors of heat. 

Tn very warm weather, during the warm part 
of the day, cotton next the skin is very comfort- 
able, and if we would change it before the cool 
of the evening comes, we could use it, and feel 
better for its use. Woolen will take a large 
amount of moisture before it feels damp; cotton 
under- garments feci very wet before they have 
received one-fourth the amount that it will take 
t<> make woolen fed damp. 



228 WHEN AND HOW. 



CHANGE THE UNDER-CLOTHES OFTEN. 

Whatever is worn next the skin of the child, 
should be changed often, veiy often ; and aired 
by being hung out where the winds of heaven 
can blow all the impurities from it, and the 
light of the sun have its purifying effect upon it. 
This airing should not be used instead of wash- 
ing, but in addition thereto; say by washing 
every week, and airing two or three times a 
week. 

CHANGE ALL THE CLOTHES AT NIGHT. 

Never let a child sleep during the night in 
any of the clothes worn during the day-time; 
and very especially those worn next the skin. 

We would speak as strongly as possible 
against this very common custom of sleeping 
ourselves, and allowing our children to sleep in 
their undershirts or garments. 

The exhalations from the skin are very abun- 
dant in a warm 1 >ed ; and if we would wear one 
garment at night, and then change it in the 
morning for another, we — and all persons 
young and old — would not offend our neigh- 
bor's nose quite so often. 



CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 229 



ALL CLOTHES SHOULD BE WELL AIEED. 

Night-dresses should be well aired during the 
day, and the day-clothes should be well aired 
during the night. Though we do not regard 
the outside clothes of nearly as much impor- 
tance, in a Hygienic view, as the underwear, 
still they should be clean and wholesome ; and 
loose and cool in hot weather, and warm 
enough in cold weather not to produce or per- 
mit any sensations of cold or chilliness. 

HABITS OF CLEANLINESS. 

Habits formed in early life and early child- 
hood are very permanent. 

"As the twig is bent, so the tree inclines," 
is as true in the habits of cleanliness as in any 
respect. Then let us strive to inspire cleanly 
habits in our children, until they are so fixed in 
them that they will ever be neat in person and 
surroundings ; that they will make clean men 
and women — in turn ready to teach habits of 
cleanliness to their children, and thus shall our 
influence reach on — forever. 

Foul skins and underwear will surely befoul 
the atmosphere; and thus we have another rea- 



230 WHEN AND HOW. 

sou for purifying our bodies. As said iu a for- 
mer chapter, the impurities in the air are very 
frequent causes of disease. 

CLEANLINESS A PASSPORT TO GOOD SOCIETY. 

One clean habit acquired is a step towards 
another, which, when gained, will help to a 
third ; and all these habits of cleanliness help 
to elevate not only the health but the general 
standing of the person in society. 

An unclean child is a mirror in which the 
habits of the mother are seen by any one who 
chooses to look therein; and no man or woman 
whose untidiness is reflected in these mirrors 
will stand as high in social caste as they whose 
children reflect the pure habits of their parents 
in their persons and dress. 

All persons admire children neatly dressed; 
and when they are thus neat and clean, the ques- 
tion of the quality of the material is very rarely 
raised. Poverty is not often an excuse for dirty 
habits; for none are so poor but they can find 
time to ust' water upon their own persons, and 
upon the persons and clothes of their children. 
" When there is a will there is a way." 



CHAPTER VII. 

Activity and Exercise. 

ANIMAL LIFE A LIFE OF ACTIVITY. 

ANIMAL life is a life of volitional activity 
— of movement — of exercise; while vege- 
table life is a life of inactivity — of quiet — 
of stationary existence; yet, though so differ- 
ently manifested, both have life — both require 
and use nutriment to supply the forces of life; 
in short, both animal and vegetable will die if 
they are deprived of food. 

A state of perfect inactivity is the only state 
in which the vegetable will thrive; while every 
organ of animal life will become atrophied to 
a degree beyond repair if it is deprived of its 
accustomed labors, for a time depending upon 
the frequency of its actions. 
231 



232 WHEN AND HOW. 

A PLAIN EXAMPLE OF THE WANT OF EXERCISE. 

But the most obvious example of the want 
of exercise is found in the muscular system. 
Take the arm of a boy and so place it that it 
cannot be moved — not a muscle able to con- 
tract; a positive quietude, having neither active 
nor passive motion — and the muscles will, in 
a short space of time, become so deteriorated 
that no remedial measures will restore them to 
activity and usefulness. Their structure has 
become changed from the original muscle cell to 
the fat cell, which has no power of motion; nor 
can the change be restored. 

EXERCISE INCREASES NUTRITION. 

Nutriment is assimilated in obedience to the 
demand made by the waste of the tissues, as 

well as to supply the growth. A healthy 
increase of this waste — if kept within reason- 
able bounds — promotes active nutrition of the 
body, and also develops more vitality. 

AVe all know that frequent exercise of a limb 
tends to increase its size and power, as is seen in 
the muscles of the blacksmith's arm, or in the 
lance calves on the legs of the pedestrian. This 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 233 

muscular exercise, while it increases the nutri- 
tion of the body, also helps to remove the waste 
or worn-out particles here and there through the 
"body, which have lost their vitality. 

Dr. Flint says : " It seems certain, then, that 
exercise increases the amount of effete matter 
eliminated. Within physiological limits, this 
increased elimination is attended, if proper 
nutriment he presented to the blood, by an 
increase in the activity of nutrition. If a man 
in perfect health, eating and drinking according 
to undepraved tastes, exercise his muscular sys- 
tem so as to increase to the highest physio- 
logical point the elimination of effete matter, 
he will correspondingly increase the nutrition 
of his muscular system. The more active the 
appropriation of nutriment, and the greater its 
amount, the higher will be the state of develop- 
ment of the muscle, and the better will it be 
able to do its work." 

THE HEALTHY CHILD CANNOT KEEP STILL. 

Thus we see why the child, and all young 
animals, have such a disposition to exercise — 
move — to run and jump. It is as necessary to 
their development as food — it is that which 



234 WHEN AND HOW. 

makes the appetite for food. It is an impossi- 
bility to keep a wide-awake animal still, more 
especially a young animal. Try to keep your- 
self still for ten minutes. Sit down in a chair 
and do not move a muscle for that length of 
time. It is not a long time, but before it is 
gone you will think it long. Step out upon the 
floor and stand perfectly still for that length 
of time, not shifting from one leg to the other, 
not changing the perpendicular position of the 
whole body, letting the arms hang down by the 
sides perfectly quiet, and after you have tried 
ten minutes, tell us, honestly, if you did not 
move a muscle. 

But let us say that you probably did move. 
You rested on one foot a part of the time more 
than you did upon the other; your knees did 
bend a little to ease the joint, and your hands 
had a muscular movement. If they did not, you 
have more control over your instinctive desire 
for voluntary motion than most persons. 

If we, as grown persons, have so strong a pro- 
pensity to move — such an uncontrolable desire 
to change our position — what should we expect 
of the active child, full of the nervous energy of 
life \ Should we put them upon hard seats, and 



ACTIVITY AXD EXERCISE. 235 

require them to sit still by the hour \ If we do, 
we will find our requirements disregarded — 
will find we have not power enough, in all our 
authority, to keep the child in such a state of 
unresting rest. It is impossible, from the phy- 
sical necessities of the child, that such require- 
ments should be obeyed. The child cannot keep 
still. It must move in its wakeful hours — and 
will move ; and it should be allowed to, and to 
do it often; and when it does not, it needs 
sleep. 

THE ACTIVE CHILD AXD YOUNG ANIMAL COM- 
PARED. 

But happily, as a rule, we are not now 
inclined to keep our children too still. We 
have already learned that motion is one of the 
first laws of growing development — that we 
enfeeble the child in proportion as we check its 
activities. We 'have observed that all young 
animal life is a life of motion — of ceaseless 
activity. We know that the lamb hops and 
skips -that the colt jumps and runs — that the 
calf will play and exercise. We have observed 
this so long that we immediately think that 
young animal sick that is motionless and still; 



236 WHEN AND HOW. 

and our conclusions are correct, for all healthy 
animal life will move. Its nervous energy will 
not be confined, but must have vent in active 
exercise. 

A CHILD THAT IS EVER ON THE MOVE IS GENE- 
RALLY HEALTHY. 

Show us a child, who, when not asleep, is 
always on the move, ever ready to run and race, 
leap and leave, roll and rolick, tear and tumble, 
and we will show you one that lias the genuine 
vigor of health. Such a child will exercise 
until tired, and then will eat and sleep; after 
which, having recuperated his exhausted nerv- 
ous and muscular power, he is again ready for 
the same exercise. 

I\-TI.\(T THE GUIDE FOR THE child's EXERCISE. 

Then we Bay, let the child play, for it is as 
necessary as is their food ; and as Ave would let 
their instinctive appetites be their rule of eating, 
so would we let the instinct of the child be its 
guide as to the kind and amount of exercise; 
that is, whether the child shall run, and thus 
exercise the muscles of its legs ; or jump, which 
develops those and the muscles of the back ; or 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 237 

climb; or use the arms a la pugilist, thus 
strengthening the muscles of the chest and 
upper extremities; or whether it shall be an 
exercise including all these motions, thus using 
all the voluntary muscles of the body. 

There is an instinct — an intuition — that 
calls upon the child to make just such motions 
as will use those muscles that are the most 
rested, or, rather, the most tired of being at rest 
— that are in the greatest need of a change of 
position by exercise. When the child is not 
hampered he will always make those motions 
that are required to give activity to those parts 
of the body that most need it. 

GYMNASTICS VERSUS NATURAL PLAY. 

And here a word comes in upon those set ex- 
ercises which we call Gymnastics. While we 
think them vastly better than no exercise, we 
think them very much inferior to the common 
play of the child. They are given systemati- 
cally, and only exercise a part of the muscles up 
to the frill idea of exercise; and perhaps they 
exercise those veiy muscles which at that time 
do not need it. 

As an instance, the boy is called to roll a 



238 WHEN AND HOW 



game of ten-pins. This uses the muscles of the 
chest, back, and arms. Perhaps, at this time, 
the boy felt a desire to run, and thus showed 
that the muscles of the legs were the ones that 
Nature told him needed exercise — were the 
muscles most weary of rest. If this boy had 
followed his own untaught instinct he would 
have taken a game of leap-frog. The gym- 
nastic game in order may be jumping, when 
the child needed an active exercise of the 
arms, and his instinctive desire was a pugilistic 
movement. 

INSTINCTIVE BETTER THAN SET EXERCISE. 

While we believe that Nature will call the 
child out where it can get pure air to breathe, 
and will give it an appetite for the food the 
body is most in need of, we believe she will not 
lead the child astray in its exercise, but that 
the instinct of the child will lead it to desire 
that exercise which is best adapted to supply its 
physical wants at that particular time; and just 
enough of it, and not too much of it. It is 
something foreign to a child's nature to underdo, 
or to overdo, when it has not been restrained 
from doing. 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 239 

When a child is tired it will lie down, and in 

" Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," 

rest, and repair its growing body. The child 
that is sick, or in any way infirm, will probably 
need the guidance of a judicious parent's judg- 
ment. But as we are writing for the healthy 
child — how to keep it so — we leave the sick to 
other doctors. 

GIRLS TOO MUCH RESTRICTED EST PHYSICAL EXER- 
CISE. 

While there is no doubt that we are inclined, 
in most families, to give our boys enough exer- 
cise, we believe that many parents do not grant 
this privilege to their daughters, when they are 
small girls even; much less to those who are 
Dealing womanhood. The mother is too much 
inclined to think that girls must not ran and 
play any of those plays that the boys so much 
delight in, and that girls would equally enjoy, if 
not taught to think them fitting only for boys. 



We too often point the "finger at our girls, 
when they are out enjoying the muscular sports 



240 WHEN AND HOW. 

of childhood, and call them "torn-boys." Most 
parents are so tearful their girls will not become 
ladies, that they very much dislike to see them 
out in the open air, amused in those rough-and- 
tumble sports that are great developers of mus- 
cle and solidifiers of bone and sinew. 

BROTHERS AND SISTERS COMPARED. 

Take a family of brothers and sisters, of course 
having equal hereditary elements, the boys hav- 
ing no advantage over the girls by way of 
entailment, and we frequently find them very 
different in physical development at a mature 
age ; the boys being strong, muscular, bony fel- 
lows, healthy and able, while the girls are too 
likely to be sickly and feeble, pale and poor, 
with small bones, and soft, flabby muscles — 
without the nervous vigor of their brothers. 

If they have grown up to full size, they can 
not endure any amount of exercise. A gentle- 
man invites young ladies, thus feeble, to walk, 
and under the stimulus of excitement they may 
walk quite well, for quite a distance — a dis- 
tance that would be impossible without the 
stimulus — but they pay the penalty of a sick 
day or two for their rashness. They cannot 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 241 

work — they cannot study. Dressing and parlor 
tete-a-tete are all they can bear, with perhaps 
an occasional ride. Languid and listless, they 
live ; and we expect them to be the mothers of 
the coming generation. 

PITY THE "COMING- CHILD." 

Oh ! pity the " coming child," if it is to have 
such a woman for its mother. Under the law 
that "like begets like," it will be a helpless piece 
of humanity — almost lifeless. What a blessing 
to the world, " and the rest of mankind," that 
such women rarely become mothers, and that, 
when they do, their children die young ! 

FASHIONABLE SYSTEM OF MAKING " LADIES." 

But the grand question in our interest is: 
Why do our girls make such valueless women \ 
Because their mothers wish them to become 
ladies; because their mothers are afraid their 
little girls will be "torn -boys"; because their 
mothers are not willing to trust their girls in 
play with the boys. Away with all such fear 
and mistrust as this ! 

Let parents remember that boys and girls are 
the same, in all points of physical, mental, or 
11 



242 WHEN AND HOW. 

moral life, until jjuberty — that they need the 
.same pure air to breathe, the same good food to 
eat, and just as much of it ; that they need, and 
must have, the same physical exercise to develop 
bone, muscle, and nervous vigor. We should 
never use such terms as " torn - 1 >oy," but should 
do all in our power to teach the girl that she 
may jump and hop, play base ball, and leap-frog, 
even ; anything and everything that shall raise 
her above the "good for nothing but to play 
with" that she becomes from the system of 
making ladies. 

Girls are kept in the house, and told that it is 
unladylike to play out of doors. This want of 
out-door exercise takes away their appetite, and 
they become dainty feeders — do not eat one- 
half as much as their brothers of the same age. 

Right here we lay the seeds of a sickly 
womanhood. The development is not good; the 
early cause being a want of such physical exer- 
cise as the boy has. 

XO PRECEDENT EOR THUS RAISING GIRLS. 

Returning to our comparison to the life of 
animals, we cannot find, in all the animal king- 
dom, a precedent upon which to base this differ- 



ACTIVITY AXD EXERCISE. 243 

ence ill the manner of raising our boys and girls. 
All animals rear their male and female issue just 
the same, up to the age when they are capable 
of procreating their species. What one has and 
does, the other has and does. They eat, sleep, 
gambol, and run just the same ; and still, among 
them all, we find the male masculine in all his 
instincts, and the female developed sufficiently 
to equal the male, and as strong, as well, and 
as capable of fulfilling her duties, as the 
male. We do not expect to see one enfeebled 
any more than the other. The animal in- 
stinct treats the sexes alike, and when maturity 
comes it finds the female equal to her part. 

So it would be with our women, if they had 
the same chance, when girls, that the boys have 
— if they were allowed the same exercise out of 
doors — the same liberty to act in accordance 
with their instinctive desires in the development 
of muscle, bone, and vigor. 

So it is with those that do have this privilege, 
and are not hampered, by social laws, from the 
instinctive employment of their muscular activ- 
ities. 

Exercise causes a waste of the body — a waste 
of the poor or worn-out cells. Waste calls for 



v>44 WHEN AND HOW. 

new matter to take its place ; the want of new 
material gives the appetite — an appetite for the 
very food that will fill the want ; and thus we 
see why we should let our reason be in har- 
mony with our instinct. This rule will apply 
to all healthy, undepraved appetites. 

THE "should have been a boy." 

Notice that young lady whose parents allowed 
her, when a girl, full freedom to rim with the 
boys, her brothers, and her neighbors 1 brothers 

the young lady who was called, all through 

her girlhood, a "wild race-colt: 1 of a girl— of 
whom people said, "She was a mistake of 
Nature — she should have been a boy" — and 
you will surely find her a beautifully-developed 
W oman — strong and vigorous. She can walk a 
few miles, before breakfast if it is necessary; can 
dance with any gentleman, and as long as the best 
of them ; and not be sick the next day, either. 

Such a woman is just as much of a lady when 
she has passed out of her wild girlhood days, as 
those who are taught all the polish and super- 
refinements of so-called fashionable society, and 
made to practice them. It is the most natural 
thing in the world for girls, born of ladies, to 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 245 

develop into ladies when the period of woman- 
hood arrives. Girls are none the less likely to 
become true ladies because, while they were 
children, they ran and played " tag" with the 
boys of their age. They are much less likely to 
become women of true worth, when they are 
deprived of all these exercises that tend so much 
to improve the physical system, and taught to 
sit still, fold their hands, and be as prim as old 
maids, trying to belie their age. 

GIRLS SHOULD NOT BE " LADIES." 

Then away with the idea that girls should be 
ladies before the age of puberty — that they 
must not romp and run, out of doors and in- 
doors, as they may choose ; up stairs and down 
stairs, up the hill and over the cliff, roll and 
tumble upon the lawn, play horse, and play tag, 
hide and seek, or any other game that is fitting 
for their brothers. 

HOW TO PREVENT "FEMALE COMPLAINTS." 

If we would thus let our girls have the same 
chance that we give our boys, we should soon 
Bee and hear less of those " female complaints," 
weak backs, and weaker limbs. Our women 



246 WHEN AND HOW. 

would become able to fulfill their part in giving 
us a healthy generation of boys and girls, who 
would grow up equally healthy, hearty, and 
strong; which would increase the strength of 
the second generation, and thus we would soon 
be, physically, a strong people. 

DR. NATHAN ALLEN ON PHYSICAL DEGENERATION. 

Nathan Allen, M.D., of Lowell, Mass., in a 
paper published in the October number of Ham- 
mond's "Journal of Psychological Medicine," for 
1870, more than intimates that the chief cause 
of the physical degeneracy of our people is a 
want of proper exercise, under favorable influ- 
ences, of the muscles and bones while they are 
growing. We quote the following from this 
truly valuable paper: "It seems to be the 
order of Nature that the physical system is best 
developed and strengthened when the person is 
young— when all the tissues of the body are 
in a natural state of growth ; and especially is 
this so in the case of the muscles, which consti- 
tute the moving powers of the whole system. 
Now, no kind of exercise or work whatever is 
so well calculated to improve the constitution 
and health of females as domestic labor. By its 



ACTIVITY AND EXEECISE. 247 

lightness, repetition, and variety, it is peculiarly 
adapted to call into wholesome exercise all the 
muscles and organs of the body, producing an 
exuberance of health, vigor of frame, power of 
endurance, and elasticity of spirits; and to all 
these advantages are to be added the best pos- 
sible domestic habits. In consequence of this 
want of training, or neglect of exercise, large 
numbers of our women do not possess that 
strength, and firmness of muscle, that stamina 
and vitality of constitution, which are indispen- 
sable to sound and vigorous health." 

STRONG MOTHERS NECESSARY FOR STRONG CHIL- 
DREN. 

This is a point of great importance. If we 
expect strong children, we must have strong 
mothers; and to get them we must commence 
our Hygienic treatment in their infancy, by giv- 
ing them, as they pass through from infancy to 
girlhood, that exercise that will strengthen their 
bones and muscles, as the blacksmith's and the 
farmer's arm is made strong by daily use — -this 
daily use being in accordance with the instinct- 
ive requirements of the child. Children are 
not lazy; they do not shim exercise or labor; 



248 WHEN AND HOW. 

nor are grown people lazy, except as it is 
acquired, or inherited from a parent Avho was 
weakly- — constitutionally tired. Healthy chil- 
dren, horn of healthy parents, will never grow 
up with indolent hal>its, if they are allowed the 
amount of play the)' need when small ; and 
then, as they grow up, the activities of their 
well -developed bodies are gradually changed 
from habits of play to habits of labor, under a 
stimulus that labor lias its reward. 

"NOT LAZY, BUT ( ONSTITUTIONALLY TTKED." 

How often we hear the remark, that " T am 
not lazy, but constitutionally tired," made jest- 
ingly ; and how few think that the remark has 
a fearfully true meaning? that it expresses just 
the facts, taking the sentence just as it is now 
recorded, without the double meaning? 

Fathers and mothers ! the tired marriage -bed 
begets many children that will be "constitu- 
tionally tired" — tired, not from their fault, but 
from being the offspring of debilitated parents 
— from being conceived in a union too tired to 
have the vigor requisite to entail vigor upon the 
issue — tired often, perhaps, from over -labor in 
the cares and trials of this life. 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 2-49 

Based upon these facts, we would say upon 
the " when " to raise healthy children : Do not 
beget a child except when you are in perfect 
bodily vigor. 

UNDEVELOPED ART VERSUS INSTINCT. 

Again, the oft -repeated expression comes in: 
" That we cannot raise sound issue from debili- 
tated stock." Nor can we rear an infant that is 
strong and sound at birth, and disobey all the 
instinctive demands of the child ; acting as 
though we thought the puny arts and wisdom 
of man were to be preferred to the natural 
instincts given by the Creator. The cattle upon 
a thousand hills are more wise in following 
Nature. 

THE SICK CHILD SHOULD REST. 

There are cases of sickness and ill -health 
where rest is a desideratum not to be lost sight 
of; where exercise is not only injurious but 
impossible; where improvement will be much 
more rapid while the child is quiet. 

We would advise these to follow the direc- 
tions of some honest, educated physician, who 
docs not think medicine the only curative agent 



250 WHEN AND HOW. 

in the world. But all health)- children, girls as 
well as boys, should l>e allowed and encouraged 
to exercise in the open air, and to do it as they 
may feel disposed — by running and jumping, 
or 1)}' using the upper extremities. 

THE CHILD WILL EXERCISE UNTIL TIRED, THEN 
REST. 

If we let children use their own instincts at 
all times in this matter of exercise, just as we 
would advise in eating, only guarding them 
from the excesses that may follow from partak- 
ing of thai which is new to them, we shall not 
find puny, undeveloped muscle or rickety hones. 
There is no tear of their exercising too much. 
When they are weary they will sit down, or lie 
down, and refresh all their exhausted muscles 
and tired nervous powers by a sound sleep, then 
awake to renew their healthful gambols. 

BUILDING GOOD " FOUND ATIQNS." 

Those who fully understand and appreciate 
this subject of exercise will say, let the little 
child play, for in so doing it is laying a founda- 
tion below fin- frosts, upon which to raise the 
building — man; that he may not "be likened 



ACTIVITY AXD EXERCISE. 231 

unto the foolish man which built his house 
upon the sand ; " " but he is like a man which 
built a house, and digged deep, and laid the 
foundations on a rock, and when the flood 
arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that 
house and could not shake it ; for it was 
founded upon a rock." 

As children cannot thus lay the foundations 
for themselves, parents are expected, by the God 
of Nature, who permits them to have children, 
to see to this laying of foundations, and raising 
the superstructure into manhood. Shrink not 
from this responsibility, for upon you alone it 
rests, as the cause of the child's being. 

"iX THE SWEAT OE THY FACE." LEARNING TO 
LABOR. 

The command, that " in the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread," is still in force; and as 
the child passes by the age of infancy it should 
be taught habits of labor; and this exercise in 
play should be, by degrees — slowly and gently 
— changed into a kind of exercise that will 
bring, as its reward, the "bread" that shall be 
eaten by "the sweat of thy face." 



252 WHEN AND HOW. 



ITS LABORS SHOULD BE REWARDED. 

The child should be very early taught to 
do its little labors of love for its parents and 
friends, and to do it from the generous impulses 
of a kind heart ; but until it is accustomed to 
labor, let it see, in a tangible shape that it can 
appreciate, some form of reward; and let this 
reward be sure " as the law of the Medes and 
Persians, which altereth not." 

Let the child understand, that as an inevita- 
ble result of labor, well performed — just as it 
was directed to do it — the reward will come; 
and, also, let it understand that it will unavoid- 
ably fail if the labor is not performed, and per- 
formed well. 

Habits of labor are more easily acquired in 
childhood; and when we add the stimulus of 
rewards, such habits are (piickly incorporated 
into the " necessary act " of the body. 

EXCESSIVE EXERCISE. 

From the fact that some children are required 
to perform too hard tasks, there is a necessity 
for speaking of excessive exercise. It is sad 
to believe that there are unfeeling, avaricious 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. !>5H 

parents, who ^vill compel little 1 toys and girls 
to over -work — who will, without a twinge of 
conscience, wring dollars out of the flesh and 
blood of their own children; yes! robbing their 
boys of their manhood, and leaving them stif- 
fened in body and shrunken in mind. This is 
not the labor of love. It is not the exercise 
that will develop. It is that which makes only 
machines of our children, acting by routine, or 
just as they are acted upon. 

A SAD PICTURE. 

Did you never see that little boy, stiffened in 
every joint — muscles too hard to be elastic? 
You know him by his walk ere he has come 
near enough to be distinguished 1 » y his features. 
You compare him to an old, stiffened work- 
horse. He is small in stature, and dwarfed in 
mind. He has only acquired a habit of work, 
and from waking to sleeping, he is "on the 
trudge." No joyous laugh in his soul! No 
responsive musical happiness there. The mo- 
ment he has to himself he takes for rest to those 
weary muscles, many times older than his years. 
The very expression of his face tells us that he 
is far more aged in labor than in pleasure, in 



254 WHEN AND HOW. 

sorrow than in joy. It also tells us that his 
mind is very small — a closed bud that can 
never obtain vitality enough to bloom. 

All this from too much labor while growing, 
that not only wearies, but exhausts; and where 
followed up in the form of physical labor, or 
too much mental labor, will render any child a 
wreck. There are, in the aggregate, very many 
such cases, and they are a wrong to the child 
for which nothing can compensate. 

HABITS OK LABOR HOW ACQUIRED. 

We would see the child, girl as well as boy, 
brought up witli habits of Labor, of regular 
Labor, just so much every*day, and that amount 
any way. No excuse except sickness. We 
would have these tasks gradually supercede 
the child's play, beffinninar as soon as he can do 
anything, ami the rate of increase be so graded 
that they will not do full labor until fully 
grown -until full)' matured in size, age, and 
development. And to this change from native 
play to labor we would have added the stimu- 
lus of rewards — rewards that shall be in a form 
to be understood and appreciated by the child. 
Let the young child understand that some toy, 



ACTIVITY AKD EXERCISE. 200 

wanted, cannot be had until earned; then, as 
he is a few steps further advanced, let him 
understand that some desired or needed article 
can be owned by him, when some slight labor 
is performed, and performed well. 

This course will give the child some true idea, 
in a form he can appreciate, of the value of his 
food, his playthings, and his clothes, as he has 
labored for them. Any judicious parent can 
regulate these " labor tasks," at such a time that 
they will supply the needed exercise which the 
child has heretofore taken in the form of play, 
as Nature has called him to run, or jump, or to 
a more quiet exercise. < 

This is a "breaking in" of the untamed boy, 
from his wild natural play, to that labor which 
shall give him such habits as are needed to 
make him lay by for a " rainy day " stores that 
will keep the wheels of life moving when he 
cannot labor. 

PRACTICAL MINUTLE. 

Tell the little boy that he can have that bit 
of chewing gmm he so much desires, when lie 
bas brought SO many small baskets of chips for 
mother, and how readily he jumps with his lit- 



250 WHEN AND HOW. 

tie basket to his labor, and soon — before you 
expected — lie conies for his pay. Next time 
he wants his gum he will know how to get it. 
This course, followed up systematically, will 
soon develop, in the boy or girl, habits of labor 
instead of play, and by the time they are old 
enough for school, they just as much expect to 
do their alloted "chores," of an hour or two's 
time, as their father expects to do his daily 
labor. 

As before said, children are not naturally 
lazy. They are by Nature very active, and it 
is the parents duty to turn this activity to the 
child's benefit, by forming it into habits of 
labor. Such habits of labor are as easily 
acquired as the habit of smoking or lounging; 
and when they are once acquired, become as 
thoroughly a part of the child's daily routine of 
life; and they will be as hard to break off from. 

LAZINESS THE PARENTS 7 FAULT. 

That every child is created for activity is 
shown in the anatomical and physiological adap- 
tation of every part. The movable joint, the 
contracting muscle, the nervous unrest, all indi- 
cate that the child was made for motion ; and it 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 257 

will be ever on the move — on a progressive 
movement — onward and upward — in its devel- 
opment, unless it is trammelled by fetters that 
in some way bind the natural aspirations. 

Are your children lazy ? They were not so 
when they were first learning the activities of 
life. How they would trot and run all day 
long when they first began ! It was motion 
every day in the year, and every hour in the 
day, through early life; only when they were 
asleep did they cease their activities ; and you 
have often wondered how they could thus 
move. But now, when large enough to labor 
for you, they are not willing. They do not 
choose to leave their play for work, and you are 
compelled to think they are lazy. If they are, 
it is your fault; you did not commence early 
enough to teach them to change their habits of 
play for habits of labor; and now, when they 
are older, it is more difficult. We should 
begin, with systematic regularity, a gradual 
change; and by showing the young mind that 
there is a reward as sure to come as the labor is 
performed, and as sure to fail as the labor fails 
— we should faithfully work at our task of 
teaching industrial habits to the child. 



258 WHEN AND HOW. 

By thus doing, we have, in a few months, 
formed ha! jits of labor in a very young child, 
•but never too young to acquire habits — habits 
that will follow him through a long life, making 
of him a man of good and regular, or poor, 
unsteady habits, according as he receives good 
or poor lessons and influences while yet a boy. 

" Train up a child in the way he should go, 
and when he is old he will not depart from it." 

HARD LABOR AT PUBERTY. 

There are a few necessary words to be said 
of the amount of labor our children should per- 
form at puberty. Because of the changes going 
on in the body at this time, all youths, for the 
year for this change, should have an easier time, 
physically and mentally, than at any period of 
life. They should then have the most nutri- 
tious food, an abundance of it, and plenty of 
sleep. Especially should the girls have this 
ease. Their exercise should be regular, but it 
should be light ; never a task that will exhaust 
the girl, or even the boy — who can bear it 
better than the girl. 

There is a labored change being made in their 
bodies that takes all the energies of their life at 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 259 

this time, and they have not the strength to 
spend in the eveiy-day task. Many boys have 
laid the foundation for ill health, by too hard 
labor at this important period of their lives. 
That labor which tries the strength of their 
backs is more especially injurious, and many 
men have complained all their lives, since the 
age of developing manhood, of "lame backs," 
caused by too much lifting at this trying age. 

THE BUDDING WOMAN. 

And the daughter, just budding into woman- 
hood, she needs some care too — some looking 
after. She should be allowed to sleep as much 
as Nature requires; eat all the good food she 
can, at regular times ; and be relieved from all 
hard or forced tasks, and from excessive plea- 
surable exercise. We do not say that they 
should not labor or exercise. We think they 
should, and do it systematically; but no hard, 
laborious effort should be required of them, nor 
should they be allowed them in the form of 
pleasure. They should never, at this period of 
life, do anything that will in any degree exhaust 
their muscular or nervous energy, or vitality. 
They want all this to cany on flic developing 



260 WHEN AND HOW. 

change that makes woman the most perfectly 
beautiful object in the world. 

MEDICAL AID BEFORE PUBERTY. 

We believe that if medical aid is wanted 
before puberty, to help growing humanity on- 
ward, the child's inheritance was not good, or 
the principles of Hygiene have been neglected. 
True, this is the most critical period of life, yet 
the watchful care of a mother, educated, as she 
should be, to care properly for her child before 
she assumes the responsibility of becoming a 
mother, will most generally prevent sickness — 
when the parentage is healthy. 

SICK CHILDREN VS. SICK ANIMALS, 

We ought to have sick children less fre- 
quently than we have sick domestic animals, 
since our knowledge is so much superior to 
their instinct, if we lived up to that knowledge. 
Ah ! 1 >ut most of our mothers know but very 
little what care they require when the first 
baby comes — too frequently — an unwelcome 
guest ; and by the time they have learned they 
cease to have more. 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 261 



NO HARD LABOR SOON AFTER EATING. 

From trie fact that trie infant will eat and go 
immediately to sleep, we argue that the child 
should rest after eating; thus carrying out the 
instinct of the child. And not only should the 
infant sleep, or rest, after eating, but the nearly 
mature boy or girl, whose development, though 
nearly perfect in size, has not yet the firmness 
and solidity of maturity, should rest for an horn' 
or two after taking a hearty meal. Digestion 
will take place more quickly, easily, and per- 
fectly, and the food be of more real use to their 
physical systems. 

We are sure not to work our horses hard 
when their stomachs are full from recently eat- 
ing or drinking largely, but we choose to give 
them rest for an hour or two, to digest their 
food. We know that they will work better, do 
more, and wear longer, than when allowed to eat 
what they want, and then made to work while 
their digestive organs are at work upon the food. 

THE ANIMAL RESTS IMMEDIATELY AFTER EATING. 

If we have observed animals in their natural 
life, we have seen, after eating and drinking 



262 WHEN AND HOW. 

what they wish, they immediately lie down and 
rest. Certain authors have claimed that man 
should sleep before he dines — should sleep 
when hungry. But they fail to give us a single 
example from Nature in which it is done ; and 
in direct opposition to the instincts of animal 
life, to our own innate desire, and to scientific 
reasoning, direct us to sleep when hungry ! All 
animal life is awake and active when in want 
of food, and usually sleepy after eating. 

The child, after eating, is not so ready for 
play, but is inclined to sleep — is much more 
easily made to take his nap than at any other 
time. 

THE CHILD NOT SLEEPY WHEN HUNGRY. 

If we would believe in and obey the instinct- 
ive desires and tendencies which the great Law- 
giver has given us, we would never say that 
man, woman, or child should sleep before din- 
ner ; but, as the child is so much inclined to do, 
sleep, or rest at least, after dinner, while all our 
energies are concentrated upon the conversion 
of food into blood. 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 263 

DOING TWO THINGS AT ONCE. 

We were not made to perform two laborious 
actions at once. We cannot use our bodies in 
hard labor and thoroughly digest a large dinner 
at the same time. If we do the work we will 
not digest the dinner well ; and if we do digest 
the dinner, we will find that we have taken the 
work easily. We cannot eat a large meal of 
strong nutritious food, and then, while digesting 
it, perform deep mathematical problems, or 
study, understandingly, some scientific book. 
If we attempt it we shall find one, or both, 
imperfectly done, and ourselves completely un- 
fitted for the succeeding duties of the day. 

If the child has digested its food, it has not 
well learned the hard lesson it was studying 
while digesting its food. If the lesson is learned 
the food is undigested ; the nutriment for supply- 
ing waste, and making the physical system good 
for the nervous work, is not ready; and the child 
is not able for the next day's study or labor. 

lb us we see that the child should rest for an 
hour or two after eating; especially after dinner, 
the principal meaJ of the day, and particularly 
from nil mental labor. 



264 WHEN AND HOW. 



MENTAL EXERCISE. 

Children should be encouraged to exercise 
the mind as they progress in years, but they 
should not be crowded to laborious mental 
application, and long hours of study. They 
have not learned how to use the brain, nor lias 
the brain tissue become used to hard work. 
The effect of severe use of the brain, in deep 
and long -continued study, to those unused to it, 
would be like that upon a child unaccustomed 
to exercise, who should take a run of an hour 
or two. 

The muscular soreness, and general debility 
that follows such a run, will illustrate the con- 
dition of the brain after long -continued, unac- 
customed study. Excessive muscular labor for 
those unpracticed, i< >ure to leave its soreness 
and general debility. Brain labor of an unusual 
amount, for the young, who are not used to 
study, is equally injurious. 

WHEN AND HOW TO STUDY HARD. 

But when the brain has obtained the habit 

of thought, and the maturity of age, it may 
labor on and on, without injury, if it does not 



ACTIVITY AND EXEECISE. 265 

interfere with any of the laws of supply and 
demand for the system. If we take sufficient 
exercise, food, sleep, and pure air — if we keep 
the person clean — and attend to all the calls of 
Nature promptly, we may study very hard, and 
never feel any worse for it, but rather much 
better. 

Now, if the child is allowed time for all these, 
as his needs require, he is not likely to over- 
study, unless crowded, or unless study is new to 
him. Novelty is very apt to lead the young 
into excess. 

THE MLND AND BODY MUST GE0W TOGETHEE. 

The mind and the body ought to be devel- 
oped together — equally — neither one or the 
other receiving exclusive attention. We must 
exercise and develop the body as the instrument 
of the mind, for the activities of the mind can- 
not become powerful when it has only a feeble 
instrument by which to do its work. 

The steam of the engine has wondrous 
power, but if the engine is imperfect and feeble 
it will not manifest that power. For all the 
good it will do us, it might as well have less 
power. 



266 WHEN AND HOW. 

So with the mind. If it has not a strong 
body through which to manifest itself, its pow- 
ers can never be of use to its fellow minds. 

On the other hand, we must develop the 
mind with the body, for what is a body with 
no " steam power " of mind to guide and direct 
it in doing all that is required of it in this life ; 
that the mind and body may thus be prepared 
for " the life which is to come." 

MLNT> AND MATTER. 

Develop mind and matter in the persons of 
your children equally, by giving the body its 
full amount of exercise, in the form of play, while 
young; and in the form of labor as soon as they 
are old enough; at the same time exercising 
the mind by answering the questions of the 
little one; and as soon as lie grows older, not 
only answer and explain what he comes to you 
to learn, but teach him to rely upon self to the 
extent of his own mental powers. 

REASON AND THE INSTINCTIVE. 

"While thus doing keep the reason as nearly 
in harmony with tin- instinctive as is possible; 
but when you are not able to harmonize them, 



ACTIVITY AND EXERCISE. 267 

remember, as you are weakness, and He is 
strength, to yield your reason to the innate, as 
the finite should ever bow to the Infinite. 

THE BEAUTY OF A VIGOROUS BRALN AND A POW- 
ERFUL BODY. 

What beauty there is in a large, strong, finely 
developed mind and body ; gifted in harmo- 
nious unison with all the powers vouchsafed to 
finite beings ! In such' persons we find that 
power which not only controls themselves, 
but controls the church — controls the state — 
aye ! controls the world of science, politics, and 
religion. 

WHO GOVERN THE WORLD. 

He who would be a leader for good in this 
world — a man of influence — must be healthy, 
active and strong, both in mind and body, and 
must have learned self-reliance. 

Much that makes a man great is inherent 
— received from the ancestry — yet much is 
done, by the right exercise of the mind and 
body, to develop what has been received as a 
heritage. 



268 WHEN AND HOW. 

HOW WE FAIL TO DO THE BEST. 

Though we cannot make a great man or 
woman of a child born of diseased parents — 
feeble in both mind and body — yet we may 
fail to make nol >le men and women of children 
born of the strongest physical parentage, and 
the inheritors of the most active brains ; and 
often do fail through the child not having been 
subjected to good Hygienic influences, but 
allowed to grow up 1 wreathing impure air, eating 
impure, unhealthy food — with foulness all 
around it, and upon it, and subjecting it to too 
much or too little labor. 

The want of this needful care has brought 
many children, born to be great, to an untimely 
end. They have been sickly and feeble, in 
mind and body, simply from want of Hygiene. 
On the contrary, Hygienic treatment has saved 
many children, with very poor heritage, and 
raised them to a manhood of influence and 
usefulness. 



CHAPTER VUL 



WHAT IS SLEEP? 

" Tir'd and thankful, let me rest — 

Like a child that sleepeth best 

On its gentle mother's breast." 

Elliott. 

SLEEP is a necessity for all animal life, and 
it is said that some vegetables show some- 
thing analogous to the repose of sleep. But as 
sleep does not effect the purely vegetative pro- 
cess of the animal, the vegetable that sleeps 
must have some life that is akin to animal life. 

" Perfect sleep is characterized by a complete 
and profound unconsciousness of everything, 
even of existance — the senses are closed against 
all impressions ; the limbs have become relaxed 
and inactive; even volition, in common with 
every other faculty of the mind, is in abeyance." 
269 



270 WHEN AND HOW. 

The consciousness does not respond to its 
natural stimuli; the eye does not respond to 
light, nor the ear to sound, nor the sense of 
touch to that which will immediately call the 
attention of the brain when it is awake. 

THE BRAIN-POWER QUIESCENT. 

Not only do the senses remain quiescent, but 
the brain does not act. It does not remember ; 
it does not compare ; it does not judge ; it does 
not calculate ; it does not imagine, or fancy ; nor 
does it use any of the functions so active when 
awake, but it lies inactive and dormant. 

THE VEGETATIVE FORCES ACTIVE. 

But though all the animal functions are at 
rest while we are in profound sleep, the organic 
or vegetative processes are acting the same as 
when we are awake. The lungs act and we 
respire; the heart beats and the blood circu- 
lates; the food is being digested, and the lacteals 
are taking up the elements of nutrition and 
passing them into the blood; the excreting 
organs are throwing out the waste; in fact, 
every process that the animal has in common 
with the vegetable, goes on during sleep as well 



SLEEP. 271 

as duiing wakefulness. But there is one process 
that is much more active dming sleep than dur- 
ing wakefulness, which is taking the nutrition 
from the blood and converting it into a part of 
ourselves — construction; while destruction is 
the most rapid during our wakeful hours. 

IT IS A BEST FOE THE IIIGHEE ORDER OF LIFE. 

Then sleep is a rest of all those phenomena 
that the animal manifests in distinction from 
the vegetable. It is a rest for the higher order 
of life, and is more a necessity for those beings 
of superior intelligence, and less a necessity for 
that order of beings nearest the vegetable. That 
brain which is being most rapidly developed, 
will need the most perfect sleep for the greatest 
number of 'hours, for it is then that the repair 
of the brain waste is made, and that growth 
progresses; and if the growth is large, or the 
labor has been great, more time must be taken 
for repair and growth. 

SLEEP A LIFE-GrVTN"G PROCESS. 

Thus we see sleep is life-giving, by affording 
time for the repair and replacement of the worn 
out molecules of the body, and for animating 



272 WHEN AND HOW. 

the new particles added to the body in growth. 
Without sleep the body would soon be worn 
out for the want of repairs, and the brain have 
no sound brain-cells to act in giving us thought, 
while the action of those unrepaired would soon 
be insane, so long as they were capable of acting 
at all. 

SLEEP IS NOT ALWAYS PEKFECT. 

Perfect sleep has the unconsciousness just 
described; but it is a fact that we do not 
always sleep as soundly as the above descrip- 
tion requires. Ofttinies some of the functions, 
either animal or intellectual, or both, are awake, 
and wc dream. Children frequently dream, but 
we think that in health, with a perfect nervous 
equilibrium, they will not dream much, provided 
they are brought up agreeably to the laws of 
Hygiene. 

SLEEP THE CONDITION OF THE FCETUS. 

The condition of the child previous to its 
birth may be likened to one of continued sleep, 
if it is not such in fact ; as the animal life appa- 
ratus is so removed from all external influences 
that it is not aroused into a conscious activity 



SLEEP. 273 

But the organic functions of life are acting with 
an energy shown at no other period of existence 
in constructing the fabric which is soon to 
emerge into an independent existence, that shall 
by degrees awake to a consciousness of its own 
being, and take cognizance of an external world 
with its objective life. 

WE AWAKE THE FIRST TIME AT BERTH. 

At birth, it awakes for the first time ; and dur- 
the first weeks after birth, the infant will con- 
tinue to sleep the greater part of the time. In 
fact, it should be awake only long enough to 
receive its food, and the necessary care of dress- 
ing and cleanliness. The great amount of con- 
struction, which we call growth, in addition to 
the replacing of those atoms of tissue, worn out 
and expended in the forces of life, requires this 
greater quantity of time for its accomplishment. 

BLEEP SHOULD BE COMPARED TO LIFE. 

Sleep lias usually been compared to death, 
and wakefulness to life. But when we look at 
the processes going on in the body, we will see 
thai sleep is the life — the life-giving hour, 
< 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 *_r which we are converting the inanimate 



274 WHEN AND HOW. 

nutrition derived from food into a part of our- 
selves — making it animate, giving it life. On 
the other hand, while we are awake, we are 
destroying a cell here, and a molecule there, 
that had life as a part of our body, but dies in 
adding to the forces of life. 

SLEEP AND GROWTH. 

This death of animated particles, used up in 
the forces of life, is much greater while we are 
awake than while we are asleep. True, assimila- 
tion is going on all the time while we are awake 
as well as when we are sleeping; but it is very 
much more rapid when we sleep — and true, the 
destructive waste is going on all the time, but 
much more rapidly during our wakeful hours of 
activity, when the animal or brain forces are 
busy. As growth becomes less rapid, we find 
less sleep required by the child as he advances 
towards maturity. 

AMOUNT OF SLEEP REQUIRED. 

The amount of sleep gradually diminishes, 
from twenty hours, soon after birth, to eighteen 
hours, at from six months to one year's age. 
From one year old to six or eight, the child 



SLEEP. 275 

should sleep from ten to fifteen hours, after 
which to maturity, eight to ten hours should be 
used in sleep. 

A mature man or woman ordinarily requires 
one-third of their time to be spent in sleep. 
As construction and destruction are about equal, 
time is required for repairs alone, none for 
growth. 

OUR BODIES ARE EVER CHANGING. 

These bodies are ever changing. Day after 
day they are not the same — not made of the 
identical particles of material they were the 
day previous. Not a limb of our body — not 
even a hair on the skin, or a piece of skin cover- 
ing the body is the same to-day as yesterday. 
It has changed by giving up a part — perhaps 
never so small, and receiving new material in 
its place — material possessing that fresh vigor 
that makes us feel like new beings. This vigor 
we feel more especially in the morning, because 
in the night, while we were sleeping, this 
change was produced with a greater effi- 
ciency and the particles of matter worn-out by 
the forces of yesterday's life, that made us fee] 
so tired, were removed and replaced by others 



27(3 WHEN AND HOW. 

that had not 1 >een used up in the manufacture 
of the forces of life. And the child not only 
repairs the waste, hut he accumulates a larger 
supply than he had the previous morning, 
which is called growth. 

WHAT MAKES THE CHILD GEOW. 

Do not understand that it is the food we take 
into our stomachs that makes the growth or 
supplies the waste. It is only that part of this 
food that Ave digest ; and then that part of what 
is digested, that is assimilated as a part of our- 
selves; that is taken up by the lacteals, carried 
to the blood, and with it passes to the various 
tissues of the body, as hone, muscle, gland, con- 
nective tissue, tendon, or brain, where each part, 
by a vital process, takes from the blood just 
those particles of digested food that it wants. 
This last is the process of repair and growth 
that is going on so much more rapidly when we 
sleep — the vital process of taking from the 
blood, and assimilating to our own tissue such 
of the nutrition that the blood has received from 
the food during its digestion, as is adapted to re- 
place that atom, once of ourselves, that was used 
up in some part of the previous day's activities. 



sleep. 277 

every organ has its tlme for rest. 

Rest is as necessary for the well-being of 
every organ of the body as is exercise; and 
from this fact every part has its time for rest. 

Did Ave say that the heart beats all the time, 
sleeping and waking ? and that we breathe just 
the same when we sleep as when we are awake? 
This is all true ; but though they do not leave 
work when we sleep, still they do have rest. 
The heart rests just one-third of the time, or all 
the time between the beats ; and the lungs rest 
from one-fourth to one-third of the time, or all 
the time between the respirations. 



THE BKAITST ONLY RESTS WHEN ASLEEP. 

Every organ has its periods of rest intermin- 
gled with its work, when we are awake as well 
as when we are asleep, save only the brain. 
This organ never rests, except during sleep. 
When it is awake there is never a single mo- 
ment but what it is active in some degree — 
thought is ever being originated through the 
destruction of brain-cells, though the thought 
may be weak and unimportant. Often when 
we are sleeping, part of the brain is awake and 



278 WHEN AND HOW. 

at work, and we call it dreaming. Nearly every 
part of the brain may thus work while the 
organ is mostly sleeping. If all parts of the 
brain were to keep up this state of dreaming 
activity through the night, as Avell as its activity 
while awake, we should soon find that we had 
lost our brain power, and could not think. In 
fact, we would become maniacs, for the brain, 
like every other organ, must have rest, or it is 
worn out. 

EVERY THOUGHT PRODUCES BRAIN WASTE. 

When we consider that every thought in- 
volves a waste of brain substance; that every 
percej)tion and every desire consumes a cell; 
that every act of memory — that every mandate 
of the will — every object seen by the eye — 
every sound heard by the ear — every motion 
of the body — and every emotion, whether it be 
painful or pleasurable, is accompanied, in fact is 
produced, by a destruction of brain tissue, and 
this every moment of our lives, sleeping or 
waking, which destruction must be reproduced 
or we will cease to T»e; and when we consider 
that repair is not as active during waking hours 
as the waste, Ave see why it is that sleeping is 



SLEEP. 279 

so necessary. We can comprehend why the 
want of sleep will always lead to insanity, and 
why it is such an agonizing death to die from 
being deprived of sleep. 

A CHINESE PUNISHMENT. 

The Chinese punish some criminals by order- 
ing them to be prevented from sleeping. In 
Dr. Forbes Winslow's Obscure Diseases of the 
Brain, Ave find the following account of the 
effect produced by this punishment : 

" A Chinese merchant had been convicted of 
murdering his wife, and was sentenced to die 
by being deprived of sleep. This painful mode 
of death was carried into effect under the fol- 
lowing circumstances: The condemned amis 
placed in prison under the care of three of the 
police guard, who relieved each other every 
alternate hour, and who prevented the prisoner 
from falling asleep night or day. He thus lived 
nineteen days without enjoying any sleep. At 
the commencement of the eighth day his suffer- 
ings were so intense that he implored the 
authorities to grant him the Messed opportunity 
of being strangled, guillotined, burned to death, 
drowned, garroted, shot, quartered, blown up 



280 WHEN AJSTD HOW. 

with gun -powder, or put to death in any con- 
ceivable way their humanity or ferocity could 
invent. This will give a slight idea of the 
horrors of death from want of sleep." 

If a great want of sleep will produce such 
effects, will not a less deprivation produce a 
proportionate result % 

SLEEP A DAM ON" THE RIVER OF LIFE. 

Life may T>e compared to a machine-shop run 
by the water accumulated by a dam on a small 
river. The water in the pond may be com] tared 
to the vital power. It runs the mill part of the 
time, but at night it is run low. Sleep may be 
compared to the dam on the river, at the shop, 
where at night the water accumulates, and an 
additional supply of power is thus obtained. 
Now, the power of the river of life is not suffi- 
cient to run man's shop all the time, so we have 
sleep as a dam to accumulate power. 

FORCE AND FUEL MUST BE EQUAL. 

We can exert just as much power as we take 
fuel in the form of food, which we digest and 
assimilate into a part of our own bodies. From 
the fact that food is not assimilated as fast as 



SLEEP. 281 

the wear of our bodies is progressing while we 
are awake, we have the allotted sleep, to arrest, 
in pait, the progress of this wear, more particu- 
larly the wear of the brain, and give it a quiet 
time for repairs to be made, that the bod)' may 
again exert its power for another day, and not 
become exhausted. 

WIIEX TIDE CHILD GROWS. 

Dr. John C. Draper says: "Reparation of 
tissues takes place chiefly during sleep. In 
infancy and adolescence, when the body is grow- 
ing rapidly, the greater portion of our time is 
spent in sleeping, so that the construction and 
increase of tissues may advance with as little 
interruption as possible. When the adult pe- 
riod is reached, the average amount of sleep is 
about eight hours in every twenty-four, though 
many people need only four or five, or even less. 
As old age approaches, and the recuperative 
powers of the system decline, a far greater 
anion nt of sleep is required." 

THE CHILD HAS GROWTH AM) WASTE TO SUPPLY. 

Iii the child we have not only the waste of 
tissue, ;is at maturity, but we have the growth 



282 WHEN AND HOW. 

to supply from the food. The child exercises 
all day at its play, and thus uses up much 
material, it being expended in force by the 
vitality and activities of life; and if the child 
is in health there is the supply to be provided 
for growth. 

This same process of assimilating nutriment 
from the blood, to replace that which is de- 
stroyed by the forces of life, is going on in the 
growing child, to make it larger and more 
compact. 

ASSIMILATION MOST RAPID WHILE WE SLEEP. 

Day by day, or mostly night by night, while 
the volition is <puet in sleep, particle after par- 
ticle is taken from the nutritive element of the 
blood and added to each bone, muscle, nerve, and 
gland, to the skin, hair, nails, and brain; and, like 
the coral reef, imperceptibly by a day's measure, 
but distinctly seen by a year's measure, the child 
grows ; and this work of growth is mostly done 
during the child's sleeping hours. Here we see 
why the child requires so much more sleep than 
the person of mature years. The infant, grow- 
ing the most rapidly, sleeps most ; the child of 
two years less, and the older child still less, 



SLEEP. 283 

until we come to maturity, when there is no 
growth to supply ; only the necessary waste of 
the life machine, at which time one-fourth of the 
time will answer for many persons, though most 
need, and should take, one-third or even more. 

"early to bed and early to rise" motto. 

Every person who sleeps as much as he needs 
will live longer than if he lessens the amount 
by sitting up late or by early rising. Children 
should sleep all they want to — should go to 
bed early, and not be called to rise in the morn- 
ing until they are through with their sleep. 
" Early to bed " is a splendid motto. But the 
other half, that our mothers have preached to 
us, and our grandmothers have preached to 
them and to us, with so much earnestness, "early 
to rise," is good for grown people, when they 
retire early enough to get all the sleep they 
need in season for "early to rise," but we 
believe it is not light for children. 

THE EARLY CHILD OFTEN GETS CAUGHT. 

The boy was light, who, in answer to the 
father that said, "It was the early bird that 
caught the worm," replied that "It was fche 



284 WHEN AND HOW. 

early worm that got caught.' 1 There is many 
an early child that has got caught with a puny, 
weak constitution, who would have been much 
more robust if it could have slept two hours 
more in the morning, every morning until it was 
ten years old. They would have assimilated 
more of the nutrition obtained from their food, 
and thus more thoroughly replaced the waste, 
making the development better; and they 
would have added to the body more particles 
of material which would have increased the 
stature. Want of sleep does not so often injure 
the size as it does the firmness of the tissues — 
the solidity, the compactness. 

THIS IS NOT TEACHING INDOLENCE. 

Do you say that we are teaching indolence? 
In answer we say, that health)' children are not 
in any danger of being too indolent. When 
they have sleep enough they are "up and at it." 
We do not have to urge them to get up, but 
the}' are more read}- than they will be, if, for a 
few weeks, the}' are called out an hour or two 
before their sleep is finished. Curtailing their 
sleep will soon make them lazy, by destroying 
their energy. 



SLEEP. 285 



THE CHILD SHOULD SLEEP ALL IT WANTS. 

If you have a healthy child, it will sleep, and 
sleep a long time, sweetly and soundly. The 
infant wants sleep all night, and the yonng 
infant most of the day ; and if they are healthy 
they will take it, and when awake will be 
cheerful. As they grow older they need less, as 
we said before; but we think the after-dinner 
nap should be taken ever}- day, until the child 
has passed a number of the years of his youth. 
It will make them more certain of a good, solid, 
healthful development. The repairs and the 
construction will be more permanent, firm, and 
yet elastic ; and of a character capable of evolv- 
ing more force. 

WHERE THE INFANT SHOULD SLEEP. 

The little infant should sleep on or near its 
mother's breast when it is weary or restless, as 
there it has an instinctive feeling that it is at 
home — there it is more likely to be cpiiet and 
content — "There it sleepeth best. 11 

There the child finds a nervous sympathy, a 
power of motherly vitality over the child's vital- 
ity, that, unexplained, soothes and quiets it — 



286 WHEN AND HOW. 

and there it will sooner fall asleep. No person 
can care for the child — other things being any 
way near equal — as well as the mother; and 
when tired, weary, and worn with an infant's 
troubles, the mother can soonest soothe it to 
rest. 

MOTHERS SHOULD NOT SHRINK FROM DUTY. 

Oh mothers ! never shrink from your respon- 
sibilities — never leave to another that which 
you can do so much better. If you are not as 
well prepared for these duties as you ought to 
lie, and have, even unwittingly, been the cause 
of a life, strive hard to learn all in your power to 
make the child healthy and strong, as then it 
will be happy. 

CAUSES THAT PRODUCE SLEEP. 

The necessities for sleep having been noticed, 
now we would look for some of the causes that 
produce sleep. 

OBSERVE THE SOFT SPOT ON THE CHILD'S ILEAD. 

On the top of the young child's head is a spot 
that the bone does not cover. This is largest at 
birth, growing smaller until it is entirely closed 



SLEEP. 287 

at about two years old. You know it is caused 
by au incompleteness of the bones of the cra- 
nium. It is usually called " the soft spot," in 
family parlance. 

HOW IT IS WHEN" AWAKE. 

Is your baby awake, and as usual, active with 
kicks and strikes ? Observe the " soft spot," 
and you see it is level with the rest of the sur- 
face of the head, or very nearly so. Your 1 hand 
hardly feels an elevation or a depression. 

HOW IT IS WHEN SLEEPING. 

But when the child is sleeping naturally, pass 
your hand on the fontanette, as doctors call it, 
and you feel a depression which your eye can 
see distinctly. 

WHY IT IS THUS. 

This is caused by there being less blood in 
tin- brail] when sleeping than when awake. 
The blood is not needed there when it is at rest 
in sleep, as it is when at work. The principle 
is the same as in the hand or arm; when they 
are exercising there is more blood carried to 
them than when at rest. 



288 WHEN AND HOW. 



THE BRAIN THE AUTOCRAT. 

AVhen awake the brain is ever at work — not 
a moment but it is busy, either giving directions 
for the care and preservation of the body, or at 
work intellectually. The flow of blood toward 
the brain is increased in proportion to the 
amount of labor being performed, making it the 
autocrat upon the throne of man's individuality. 

But when sleep overtakes it, the activity is 
gone, and the surplus blood flows from the brain 
to other organs, as the digestive and assimila- 
tive, or the general abdominal viscera. This 
flow of blood from the brain is what makes the 
"soft spot" on the infant's head lower during 
sleep than the cranial surface ; there is not as 
much blood in the brain as when awake. The 
fact is proven beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
by the many experiments made by Dr. Win. A. 
Hammond. 

THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF SLEEP. 

Now, this reduction of the quantity of blood 
in the brain is the immediate cause of sleep ; a 
point to be remembered when the baby, or the 
grown person, does not sleep well. 



SLEEP. 289 

We understand, then, that in the healthy 
child, when it is weary, and its sleeping time is 
come, the "blood does not determine to the brain, 
but from it, toward the organs that prepare 
materials for the repair of the waste, and for the 
growth of the body. We understand that in 
poor, irregular sleep, this reduction of the blood 
in the brain is less than when sleep is good; 
and we further understand, that when there is 
no lessening of the blood hi the brain, there is 
no sleep. 

THE ORDER OF FALLING ASLEEP. 

When we fall asleep, the senses usually lose 
their power in the following order : First the 
sense of sight is gone ; next the sense of taste is 
quieted; the sense of smell next; the hearing 
next ; and, last of all, the sense of touch. In 
waking, this order is usually reversed ; the first 
sense aroused being the touch. But this rule 
has many exceptions. 

PAETIAL SLEEP. 

There are slates in sleep in which the action 
of the organs of sense upon the brain or mind, 
and it- reaction on them, varies from this usual 
L3 



290 WHEN AND HOW. 

course. Thus the nurse at the sick-bed may 
sleep in every sense but hearing; that being 
awake more particularly to the patient whom 
she is watching than to any other sound. 

A noise may occur in another room, or even 
in the room in which she is, and not be noticed ; 
yet the least movement of the patient will 
arouse her quickly. The sleep of the mother 
with her infant is of the same kind. The miller 
sleeps while his mill is at work, but wakes im- 
mediately when it stops. The wearied soldier 
may sleep while on the march in every ability 
except Aval king. 

Now, this kind of sleep, with a wakefulness 
of a part of the brain powers, is analogous Lo 
dreaming, and will, to a certain degree, illus- 
trate it. 

IN DEEAMTNG, THE BKATN POWEES NOT ALL ASLEEP. 

In dreaming, some of the faculties of the 
mind are awake. The whole brain power may 
be asleep except the imagination, or the memory 
and the imagination ; and as the judgment and 
will-power are considered to be asleep if any 
part is, these wakeful faculties run on, in dream- 
ing, without law or rule; there being no sys- 



SLEEP. 291 

teinatic arrangement. This is why we have so 
much that is unnatural and wonderful in almost 
all dreams. The state of the brain, when we 
are dreaming, is between the waking and the 
sleeping state; that is, some part of the brain is 
more largely supplied with blood, and it is this 
part that is at work. There may sometimes be 
a general increase of blood above the sleeping 
state, but it never becomes equal to that of full 
wakefulness. When this increase is general 
there will be a misty dream, more like the 
realities of day-time. 

IN DREAMS WE ORIGINATE NOTHING. 

We originate nothing in our dreams from the 
brain powers ; we only remember, and this we 
do in a most irregular manner — uniting things 
very remote, and often veiy ludicrous, and sepa- 
rating others that our wakeful hours would soon 
tell us must go together. 

Man never dreams of that of which he never 
had any thought or knowledge. 

The Europeans never dreamed of the North 
American [ndians, until they were discovered; 
nor did the discoverers dream of there being 
such personages until they had thought of find- 



292 WHEN AND HOW. 

ing them. The man who never heard of a tele- 
graph, or a railroad, or a steamboat, never 
dreamed of one. Our dreams are dependent 
upon our previous thoughts, and only occur 
when there is an increase of the amount of 
blood in some part of the brain, above the nor- 
mal amount for sleep. 

THE OLD IDEA OF THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF 
SLEEP. 

We ought to say here, that the reduction of 
the amount of blood in the brain during sleep, 
is a somewhat new opinion, the old one being, 
that there was more blood in the brain during 
sleep than when awake, and that this increased 
amount of blood, by producing pressure, was 
the cause of sleep. 

But the experiments of scientists — more 
especially of Arthur E. Durham and Wm. A. 
Hammond, M.D. — have shown conclusively the 
old error; and that there is less blood in the 
brain during sleep than dining wakefulness. 
When a state resembling sleep is produced by 
the pressure of blood, it is not sleep, but a 
stupor, from which it is very difficult, if not 
impossible, to arouse the subject. 



SLEEP. 293 

THE 3[EDIATE CAUSES OF SLEEP. 

But let us look for some of the mediate .causes 
of sleep. Anything that will reduce the amount 
of blood in the 1 >rain, will produce sleep ; and 
everything that tends to keep up the full sup- 
ply of blood, or to increase it, will cause wake 
fulness. 

Thus the excitement of the mind by fear, 
anger, or on the other hand by pleasure, in fact 
or in anticipation, will keep the eyes of the 
child open wide, so long as it is deeply inter- 
ested. Deep mental study will keep the mature 
mind from repose ; and as soon as the blood of 
the brain is in the least reduced, we cannot 
study with any profit. 

HEAT A jrEDIATE CAUSE OF SLEEP. 

Among the causes that reduce the circula- 
tion of the brain, we woidd notice heat. All 
know that great warmth will oppress with 
drowsiness, by 1 (ringing the blood largely to 
the surface of the body, thereby reducing it in 
the brain. 



294: WHEN AND HOW 



COLD A MEDIATE CAUSE OF SLEEP. 

Long-continued cold will do the same. But 
at first, cold produces wakefulness, by driving 
the blood away froni the surface; yet, if con- 
tinued, it irritates the surface, and draws the 
blood outward. A very common time of being 
very sleepy, is when we get warm after being 
out in the cold for a long time, as riding for a 
few hours. Then the blood comes rushing out 
to the surface of the bod)-, making the skin very 
red, and sleep is overpowering. 

DIGESTION A MEDIATE CAUSE OF SLEEP. 

Digestion is another means for bringing blood 
from the brain, and producing Bleep. All know 
that a hearty dinner is a great soporific, and all 
know that the surest way to get the infant to 
sleep, is to give him his fill of food. 

Upon this subject, Dr. Hammond says: "Di- 
gestion leads to sleep by drawing upon the 
brain for a portion of its blood. It is for this 
reason that we feel sleepy after the ingestion of 
a hearty dinner. A lady of my acquaintance 
is obliged to sleep a little after each meal. The 
desire to do so is irresistible; her face becomes 



SLEEP. 295 

pale, her extremities cold, and she sinks into a 
qniet slumber, which lasts fifteen or twenty 
minutes. In this lady the amount of blood is 
not sufficient for the due performance of all 
the operations of the economy. The digestive 
organs imperatively require an increased quan- 
tity, and the flow takes place from the brain ; it 
being the organ with her which can best spare 
this fluid. 

LARGE EATERS LARGE SLEEPERS. 

" As a rule, persons who eat largely, and have 
good digestive powers, sleep a great deal, 
and many persons are unable to sleep at 
night until they have eaten a substantial sup^ 
per. The lower animals generally sleep after 
feeding, especially if the meal has been large, 
While it is an error to suppose, as is generally 
done, that a moderately full meal, eaten short]} 
before bed-time, is necessarily productive of 
wakefulness, there is no doubt that this condi- 
tion is induced by an excessive quantity of irri- 
tating or indigestible food. A hearty supper of 
plainly cooked and nutritious food rather pre- 
disposes to sleep. Most of us have experienced 
the drowsiness which so often follows dinner. 



296 WHEN AND HOW. 

WHY DIGESTION CAUSES SLEEP. 

" This is due to the fact that the process of 
digestion requires an increased amount of blood 
in the organs which perform it, and consequently 
the brain receives a less quantity. A tendency 
to sleep is therefore induced. It is a natural 
and healthy predisposition, and yielded to in 
moderation conduces to a more complete assimi- 
lation of the food than would otherwise take 
place. 

tNDIGESTION PREVENTS SLEEP. 

""When, however, the food ingested is not 
merely sufficient for the wants of the system, 
bui is inordinate in amount, or irritating in 
quality, the hypnotic effect is nutralized, and 
often a state of wakefulness supervenes, from 
the fact that the quantity of blood circulating 
in the brain is augmented instead of being 
diminished. This last result is induced either 
by the pressure of the over-loaded stomach upon 
the abdominal vessels, or through a reflex action 
on the heart, by which it is excited to increased 
activity. 



SLEEP. 297 

EFFECT OF FOOD UPON THE SLEEP OF YOUNG 
CHTLDEEN". 

" In young children, who are very susceptible 
to the influence of causes acting upon the nerv- 
ous system, we often see both sleep and wake- 
fulness result as direct effects of eating. When 
the quantity of milk taken has not been ex- 
cessive, the child quietly drops to sleep at the 
breast. On the contrary, when a superabund- 
ance has been ingested, it either remains awake 
or the sleep is disturbed. In adults it is, as has 
already been mentioned, not uncommon for apo- 
plexy to ensue upon a large meal of improper 
food. 

WAKEFULNESS AND TITE DIET. 

"In order, therefore, that the disposition to 
wakefulness may be removed, it is essential that 
attention should be paid to the diet of the 
affected individual. As a rule, people are under- 
fed. This is especially the case with women, 
who too generally indulge in what may be 
termed "slops," fco the exclusion of good, solid, 
nutritions food derived in part from the animal 
kingdom. By such a faulty diet, the tone of the 



298 WHEN AND HOW. 

system is lowered, and local congestions of dif 
ferent parts of the body are produced. If the 
brain is one of these wakefulness results." 

CHILDREN EASILY AFFECTED BY THIS DIET. 

Children are very easily affected by those 
influences that act upon the stomach, and we 
often see either sleep or wakefulness result from 
food, or the want of it. An excessive amount at 
one time will keep from sleep ; and, on the other 
hand, hunger will keep away sleep. When 
children should sleep, the rale ought to be to 
give them a moderate amount of plain food, if 
they have passed the nursing age ; if not, they 
should nurse what they want. Yet the nursing 
infant and the child should have the regular 
hour both for food and sleep. The digestion of 
a moderate and plain meal of food will certainly 
assist the infant and child to sleep. 

But overloading the stomach will as certainly 
obstruct the flow of blood from the brain, and 
thus cause an increase of the amount of blood 
in the brain, thereby preventing sleep; and 
when there is a very large increase, it may, and 
often does, produce stupor, from which it is very 
difficult to arouse the child. 



SLEEP. 299 



LATE SITPERS. 



Shall children eat at night, just before they 
go to bed ? This is a question that should be 
answered so as to be understood. It is a ques- 
tion that affects the health of the child. 

Now, there are certain conditions upon which 
an answer rests. If the child is not hungry it 
certainly should not eat. If it is hungry it cer- 
tainly should not eat unhealthy food — indigest- 
ible food, such as cakes, condiments, and rich 
pastry. If it is hungry it should not eat all it 
can, thus gorging itself to stupidity. Nor 
should children eat unhealthy food at any time, 
nor too much plain food; but, above all, they 
should not eat it to sleep upon. If they do, 
their sleep will be a troubled, dreamy sleep, or 
a stupor, from which it will be almost impossi- 
ble to arouse tnem. 

ruder these restrictions, we think the child 
can just as safely eat before sleeping as at any 
time As these restrictions all apply to the 
child when not wishing sleep; that is, as it 
should never cat unhealthy food, and never 
over-eat, whether wishing sleep or wakefulness; 
it may just as well eat and lie down in sleep as 



300 WHEN AND HOW. 

to eat at any other time. With plain food, at 
frequent regular hours, the child will not over- 
eat, unless tempted with some favorite dish, not 
eaten for a Ions; time. 



NOW WE SEE WHY. 



Now, we can see, from the fact that the diges- 
tion of food calls an extra amount of blood to 
the stomach for its digestion, and from the fact 
that it relieves the brain of a surplus, which 
reduction is necessary for sleep, that giving the 
child, who lias an a] .petite for it, a small quan- 
tity <>f plain food, as the infant nurses, will help 
to make it sleep — that it is one of Nature's 
ways <.f causing sleep. We further know, that 
it is the instinctive desire of every child to sleep 
after eating. And we still further know, that 
animals, especially all young, growing animals, 
will sleep after satisfying their appetites, and 
never sleep when hungry. 

Do we not see an argument here in favor of 
eating, reasonably, before sleeping? 

TOO MUCH AND TOO RTCH FOOD BEFORE >LKEPING. 

\Yhile there is such an argument, and though 
we think it very sound, we feel it is best to say, 



SLEEP. 301 

that from this argument we should not take the 
liberty of feeding our children heartily from our 
suppers, usually made up of very unhealthy food 
for young people, and often not partaken of 
until an hour of the evening when young chil- 
dren should 1 >e asleep ; and still further, we 
should not feed them pastry and food rich in 
condiments to sleep upon, for the reason that 
they are injurious as a direct irritation to the 
child's stomach and bowels, which irritation is 
the producer of wakefulness and disease. 

A NIGHT OF "mGHTMAKE AND HOBGOBLINS." 

It is not proper food, or the digestion of food, 
that produces a sleepless night — a night of 
" nightmare and hobgoblins " — but it is the 
irritation of indigestible food. If it were the 
digestion of food, the infant would not rest well 
after nursing, and every mother knows that is 
the time it sleeps best. If it is the digestion of 
food that keeps up wakefulness, why is it that 
the animal will sleep after eating, and almost 
in'vcr sleep when its stomach is empty? No, it 
is qo1 digestion that keeps the child from sleep 
— that gives the man the nightmare — it is the 
irritation produced by indigestion of quantities 



3(;2 WHEN AND HOW. 

and substances that should never be admitted 
to the stomach. 

TO AVOID A SLEEPLESS NIGHT FOR THE CHILD. 

Then, if you would have your child avoid a 
restless night, you should not put or send it to 
bed hungry; nor should you feed it food that 
no stomach should take for supper, even if it is 
allowable for dinner, nor should you feed it a 
large amount. But you should feed it mode- 
rately, on plain food, if it is hungry". 

Then will digestion assist sleep by deriving 
blood for its use from the brain, and assimilation 
will be thorough, and the child will grow and 
develop into a perfect humanity. 

Let us change the cry against late suppers to 
a cry against had suppers. 

SOOTIIIXO TENDS TO PRODUCE SLEEP. 

From the fact that excitement will keep up 
an increased circulation in the brain, all that 
will soothe the child will have a tendency to 
produce sleep, as soothing will reduce the excite- 
ment, when the brain will be relieved of a part 
of its blood ; and this will indirectly put the 
child to sleep. This is the explanation of all of 



SLEEP. 303 

those every-day family measures to get the baby 
to sleep — such as mouotouous movements or 
sounds; soft, even frictions to the body, and 
singing of lullabys of much sameness of sound. 
These are usually very efficient in ordinary 
cases. 

PHYSICAL EXERCISE TENDS TO PRODUCE SLEEP. 

When insomnia is very persistent, other mea- 
sures should be taken, and one of the most 
beneficial is the fatigue that follows good exer- 
cise : and we believe no child will sleep well 
who is deprived of what active exercise it wants. 
As said in the chapter on exercise, let them 
play, run, and j amp, then lie down and sleep ; 
and give them all the sleep and exercise they 
want, only using caution when some new form 
of exercise is used. 

MORE EFFECTIVE MEASURES TO PRODUCE SLEEP 

WARM BATH TO THE BODY, AND COLD TO THE 
BEAD. 

But we will suppose that you have a healthy 
child, who does not sleep well — an unnatural 
supposition — and we would suggest how to 
make it sleep, for we know it will soon be 



304 WHEN AND HOW. 

good for nothing unless it sleeps well. It 
will become irritable and cross, and lose its 
strength of body and mind. If the usual quiet, 
the usual rockings, pattings, and singings will 
not cause it to sleep, we would give it a bath 
of some 95° warmth, and keep the whole of the 
child's body in it, except the head, which should 
be wet with cold water. It should be used 
from five to ten minutes. The warm water 
brings the blood more profusely to the surface 
of the body, while the cold water tends to drive 
the blood from the head; and as soon as the 
blood in the brain becomes reduced below the 
usual amount of the wakeful state, the child will 
sleep. As soon as the child is taken from the 
bath it should be wiped dry, and then rocked 
to sleep in its accustomed way. Do not use the 
bath and then allow the child to play for any 
time, but immediately attend to getting it to 
sleep. If the child — or grown person — will 
not sleep after such a bath, it is sick, and needs 
the advice of a physician. 

HOT FOOT BATH AND COLD TO THE HEAD. 

The hot foot bath of some 100° in tempera 
ture, and cold water on the head, will produce 



SLEEP. 305 

the same effect on a smaller scale. It will often 
so reduce the circulation in the brain as to pro- 
duce immediate sleej). The use of cold on the 
head, and warmth on the feet, is a very sensible 
way of getting sleep at night, for those grown 
people who usually go to bed with cold feet and 
hot heads, to lie awake until the head is cool 
and the feet are warm. Never put a child to 
bed with cold feet, as you value your child's 
health. And grown people will add years to 
their lives, if they will remember this rule, and 
practice it. 

SLEEPLESSNESS AND BRAIN POWER. 

From Dr. Hammond's work upon sleep we 
quote what he has quoted from Dr. Kay's book 
on Mental Hygiene, as very expressive of the 
effect of the want of sleep : 

"A periodical renewal of the nervous ener- 
gies, as often as once a da) 7- , is an institution of 
Nature, none the less necessary to the well-being 
of the animal economy, because in some degree 
under the control of the will. To disregard its 
requirements with impunity, is no more possible 
than it is to violate any other organic law with 
impunity; and no man need natter himself that 



306 WHEN AOT) HOW. 

he may systematically encroach upon the hours 
usually devoted to rest, and still retain the 
freshness and elasticity of his faculties. "With 
the same kindliness that marks all the arrange- 
ments of the animal economy, this condition is 
attended with many pleasing sensations and 
salutary effects, gently alluring us to seek the 
renovation it offers. ' While I am asleep,' says 
the immortal Sancho Panza, ' I have neither fear 
nor hope ; neither trouble nor glory ; and bless- 
ings on him who invented sleep — the mantle 
that covers all human thoughts ; the food that 
appeases hunger; the drink that quenches 
thirst ; the fire that warms ; the cold that mod- 
erates heat; and, lastly, the genuine coin that 
purchases all things; the balance and weight 
that makes the shepherd equal to the king, and 
the simple to the wise.' 

"The ill effects of insufficient sleep may be 
witnessed on some of the principal organic func- 
tions, but it is the brain and nervous system 
that suffer chiefly in the first instance. The 
consequences of a too protracted vigil are too 
well known to be mistaken, and many a person 
is suffering, unconscious of the cause, from the 
habit of irregular and insufficient sleep. One 



SLEEP. 307 

of the most common effects is a degree of nerv- 
ous irritability and peevishness, which even the 
happiest self-discipline can scarcely control. That 
bouyancy of the feelings, that cheerful, hopeful, 
trusting temper, that springs far more from or- 
ganic conditions than from mature and definite 
convictions, give way to a spirit of dissatisfac- 
tion and dejection; while the even demeanor, 
the measured activity, are replaced, either by a 
lassitude that renders any exertion painful, or 
an impatience and restlessness not very conduc- 
tive to happiness. Upon the intellectual pow- 
ers the mischief is still more serious. They not 
only lose that healthy activity which combines 
and regulates their movements in the happiest 
manner, but they are no longer capable of 
movements once perfectly easy. The concep- 
tions cease to be clear and well defined; the 
power of endurance is weakened ; inward precep- 
tions are confounded with outward unhappiness, 
and illusory images obtrude themselves unbid- 
den upon the mind. This kind of disturbance 
may pass, sooner or later, into actual insanity, 
and many a noble spirit has been utterly pros- 
trated by habitual loss of rest." 



308 WHEN AND HOW. 

WANT OF SLEEP WOESE ON THE CHILD THAN ON 
THE MAN. 

If such is the effect of the want of sleep upon 
man, mature in life, what must it be upon the 
child who is growing — still immature — whose 
bodily powers are, as yet, not compact and solid, 
and whose brain is affected by everything that 
is capable of leaving an impress upon it ? 

LITTLE SLEEP, LITTLE CHEERFULNESS. 

Does your child sleep too little ? Then it is 
irritable, peevish, and cross. All day long it is 
a trouble to you because of its worry. Every- 
thing its play -fellows do is wrong, and almost 
everything you do is wrong, and does not suit 
the child. It wants this, and when it has it, it 
wants it no more, but wants that, to reject it as 
soon as it is received. It wants to go here and 
there, only to tease you for a new — something. 
Kestless and uneasy ; ever on the move ; never 
to be pleased with the movement. 

THE CROSS, IRRITABLE CHILD SHOULD SLEEP MORE. 

Such a child needs sleep to quiet and repair 
those over -strained brain fibres and cells, that 



SLEEP. 309 

have "been on the strain so long that they are 
already in a tremor that may give place to a 
state of wild insanity. 

The brain wastes more rapidly than any other 
portion of the system, because it works more, 
being the executive that attends to the carrying- 
out of the laws of the body, as well as the legis- 
lator of its orders; keeping the accounts, and 
paying off the creditors, both in the supply and 
scavenger departments. Therefore it must have 
time for the repairs which are mostly made 
while the child is sleeping. Then, if you would 
have your child pleasant, cheerful, and happy 
under all circumstances, and always satisfied 
with what you have for it, you must be sure it 
sleeps all it needs — be sure it goes to bed early, 
and that it is not called until it wakes up vol- 
untarily. Should it wake too early, ere it has 
slept enough, soothe it to sleep again; do not 
take it up, or make it get up, or even allow it 
to get up, until it has slept its full quota. 

LITTLE SLEEP, LITTLE BRAIN POWER. 

Among the first symptoms of insanity is an 
inability to sleep, and one of the important 
causes is a deprivation from sleep. This applies 



310 WHEN AND HOW. 

to all the ages, from infancy to old age. But 
shoi't of insanity, the want of sleep will tend to 
dwarf the brain, preventing the child from ex- 
erting that mental power that he might if he 
had slept more, and from becoming a man of 
as much intellectual ability as he would have 
possessed had the brain been allowed time to 
grow and repair its waste by removing all the 
worn-out rubbish, and doing up its scavenger 
work. 

GREAT BRAIN LABOR REQUIRES MOST SLEEP. 

As the child grows older he is not only learn- 
ing by observation, and by quizzing everybody 
who will answer his questions, but he goes to 
school, and there studies lessons that are far 
harder, according to his capacity, than the pro- 
blems that most of us think very difficult for 
our minds. More brain force is now expended 
than was used prior to attending school, and 
thus the brain is more wearied, and wastes more 
rapidly, which again calls for more time in sleep 
to remove the waste and reinvigorate the brain. 
Then the school-boy, using the brain much, must 
slerp more than the boy who is only using his 
muscle. 



SLEEP. 311 



THE SLEEP OF 



It is the custom, in some of our boarding- 
schools, to call the pupils up too early in the 
morning, and the young people of these schools 
are not willing to retire to sleep as early as they 
should ; thus they get too little rest. The for- 
ward student, who has over -worked the brain 
— been full of mental activity — is soon found 
with a flushed face, a hot head, throbbing tem- 
ples, and cold feet ; at first he would not sleep, 
now he cannot. After spending many sleepless 
nights, restless and weary, with perhaps an 
aching head, he finds it impossible to concen- 
trate his thoughts upon a lesson, or even upon 
anything, and is taken home sick — sick in mind 
as well as body. 

TOO LITTLE SLEEP UNSETTLES THE STUDENT. 

It was not the hard, close study that injured 
him, or that will injure any one, but it was the 
want of the rest the brain needed — the rest 
only obtained from " Nature's sweet restorer." 

It is not the day's toil over the book, with the 
attention never so concentrated, but it is the 
w midnight oil" that unsettles the studious stu- 



312 



WHEN AND HOW. 



dent. It is, in short, plain words, too little 
sleep. 



SLEEP AND PUBERTY. 



Then, again, these studious days often come 
while the change we call puberty is taking place 
in the child ; while they are being made over 
from boys and girls to men and women. These 
are the years when the bodily powers are in 
constant effort to rear and develop the super- 
structure of manhood or womanhood ; and, save 
the years of infancy, they should receive the 
greatest care, and require the most sleep. The 
greatest amount of labor, both physical and 
mental, is then being performed in our bodies ; 
and where the most labor is accomplished, there 
the most rest is required. If the equilibrium 
between labor and rest is not preserved ; if the 
body does not receive in proportion to what it 
gives, it will sometime rebel. 

The forces of life cannot exceed the material 
used in the manufacture of force, and the amount 
and quality of material used will be in direct 
proportion to the time taken for its use. 

The mature life may cut short its sleeping 
hours with much more safety than the child, 



SLEEP. 313 

who is all undeveloped, and yet developing so 
fast, both in brain and in muscular force. But 
the mature will suffer, if they persist in reducing 
the amount of sleep they should take. 

THOSE WHO SLEEP LESS THAN USUALLY NEEDED. 

There are those who will do with much less 
sleep than the average of mankind must have. 
They are of the kind who do everything quickly, 
and thus they slee]3 fast — doing up more of it 
in an hour than others do in an hour and one- 
half. We must not take such exceptions as the 
rule for our guidance, but must follow that as 
the rule which satisfies the majority — which 
one will follow when he does not try to reason 
away the instinctive. 

THOSE WHO SLEEP MORE THAN USUALLY NEEDED. 

On the other side, we find those who require 
twice the common amount of sleep. We can 
find grown persons who will sleep fifteen or 
sixteen hours out of every twenty-four ; and we 
can find stupid, sleepy youths, that are almost 
asleep all the time, and quite asleep the moment 
fchey are Btill. These cases are exceptions, and 
should have no weight in our conclusions upon 



314 WHEN AND HOW. 

what is the "greatest good for the greatest 
number." 

SLEEPING IN NIGHT-CLOTHES. 

In the chapter upon cleanliness, we spoke of 
changing the clothes worn during the day for 
others to sleep in, as a measure of neatness. As 
a means of producing good, refreshing sleep, 
it is also very much to be commended, and 
should be always followed. Never put a child 
to bed without first changing all his clothes, 
washing his body clean with pure water, and 
giving him fresh, sweet, night-clothes, as pure as 
pure water can make them. These had better 
be of only one garment, which should be loose. 
Then the child will sleep much more soundly, 
and its sleep will do it much more good. It is 
truly bad enough for grown persons to sleep, 
and work, or try to study, in the same under- 
clothes. We should always treat our children 
better than we do ourselves, for they cannot 
bear poor care as well. 

SLEEPING WITH OLD PEOPLE AND SICK PEOPLE. 

Children should not sleep with old people; 
but alone, or with those of their own age. Nor 



SLEEP. 315 

should they sleep with those enfeebled with 
disease, either acute or chronic — as consump- 
tives — even when the disease is not yet suffi- 
ciently developed to weaken the patient. There 
is a draft upon the child's vitality, when in 
close contact with those enfeebled, that is bet- 
ter known from observation than explained by 
science. 

FOLLOW THE LTSTSTINCTrVE. 

Then let us follow the instinct of our chil- 
dren, by allowing them to sleep as much as 
they are inclined, and not cry against their tak- 
ing a late supper when they are hungry, but 
always cry out against the quality, when it is 
composed of what cooks call " rich food." Of 
plain food, then, we may give them just as freely 
when they are going to sleep soon as when 
they have just awakened. 



INDEX. 



Ancestry, a good, - - - - 64 

Appetite, controling the, - 127 

Activity depends upon food, - 149 

Active child and animal compared, - - 235 

An anatomical argument, - 152 

Animals, clean, - - 200 

" clean and unclean, compared, - - 202 

Animal life active, - 231 
A sad picture, ----- 253 

A strange inconsistency, - 135 

B 

Bath and clean shirts exhilarating, - - 212 

Birth, what's received before, 53 

Boy, the should have been a, - - 244 

Body ever changing, - 275 

Brain power transmissable, - - 08 
317 



318 



ENTDEX. 



Brain labor requires most sleep, - . 310 

Breathe all you can, - 115 

Building homes, - _ -Q2 

Build on high grounds, - - _ - 119 

o 

Cautions in changing diet, - 157 

Cellars, foul, - jq 6 

Children originated long before birth, - - 17 

" guides to raising, - - _ 31 

" inherit from both parents, 

" should have the best, 

" should eat with freedom, 

" easily affected by diet, 

Cleanliness a passport to good society, - - 230 

Clothe according to sensation, - - 218 

Clothes of child and man compared, - - 220 

Consumption, how prevented, - - 193 

impure air a cause, - - 108 

Courting, think before you go, - - 48 

Crime, hereditary tendency to, - - . 69 

D 

Deceptions used in marriage, - - - 73 

laws to prevent, - 75 

Divorce, a cause for, - . . 75 

Doctors should prevent as well as cure, - 101 

Doing two things at once, - 263 

Dreaming, 390 

Dress, the girl's and ballet ^girl's compared, - 223 



56 
140 

158 

298 



ENDEX, 319 



Drugs, how to save their use, 


216 


Dry air, where found, - 


- 122 


E 




Eating, rest after, - 


- 261 


Early and late marriage, 


83 


Endurance and size, - 


- 146 


Entailment, what it determines, 


54 


" physical, - • 


63 


Errors affect our issue, 


23 


Etiquette, don't teach table, 


- 160 


Excess a consequence of restriction, - 


129 



F 

Fathers to girls, mothers to sons, - 70 

Fire-place, the old, - 114 

Flannel next the skin, - - - 226 

Foetal life a sleep, - 273 

Food and force, ----- 123 

" constant use of one kind, - - 132 

" concentrated, - 143 

" for infants, 161 

" divided into groups, - - 173 

" how to he used, - - - 175 

" all vegetable or all animal, - - 180 

" animal, ----- 181 

" vegetable, 184 

" auxiliary, - 186 

" beverages, tea and coffee, - - 187 

"fat, - - - - - 189 



320 



E5TDEX. 



G 



Gas, carbonic acid, 
Girls too much restricted, 
Good, how to entail the, • 
Growth and repairs, - 



239 

72 
126 



H 

Habits of cleanliness, 

Hardening process, 

Health, very good, rare, - 
" and no doctor bills, - 
" parents responsible for, 

Healthy child cannot keep still, 

Hereditary influence, 

" tendencies, avoiding, 

How we fail, 

Husband or wife, looking for a, 

Hygiene, why we should study, 



229 
51 
24 
92 
94 

233 
61 
49 

268 
44 

198 



Impure air, 

" " the worst form, - 

" " how to prove, 
" " makes disease worse, 
Infant, when to wean, 
Infants, caring for our own, - 
Instinct, the guide to exercise, 
Intellect, how unfolded, 



97 
102 
104 
111 
170 
163 
236 



IXDEX. 321 



Labor lost, - 145 

" excessive, - - - - 252 

habits of, - - - - - 254 

teaching how, - - - - 251 

Ladies, the fashion of making, - - - 241 

Large eaters, large sleepers, - 295 

Late suppers, - 299 

Laziness the parents' fault, - 256 

Life, parents the cause of, - 165, 

Little sleep, little cheerfulness, - - 308 

M 

Man, the free gift of God to, - - 143 

Marriage, early and late, - 83 

" endless results of a single, - (51 

" physician's advise as to, - - 80 

" shoitld consider the children, - 46 

Marry your complement, - - - 81 

Maternity, how girls are educated for, - - 32 

Meat for children, - 138 

Mental exercise, - 2(54 

Milk prepared by Nature, - - - 166 

" its analysis, - - - - - 177 

Mixed diet for children, - - - ll»i 

Moral training, - ;5i; 

Mortality, early, .... is 

Mother, a foolish, - - - - 112 

" uncleanly, - 207 



322 INDEX. 



K 



Nature, the language of, - - - - 28 

"Not lazy, but constitutionally tired," - 248 

No sleep, the severity of, - - -279 



Parents, had they known, - - 26 

" what they will do, - 34 

Parents the cause of the child's life, - - 1G5 

Passion, do not nurse when in, - - 173 

Personal observations, - 190 

Philanthropy, the keystone of, - - 30 

Physicians, their advise in marriage, - - 86 

Physical degeneration, causes of, - - 24(i 

Prevention better than cure, ... 93 

Puberty, labor at, - - - - 258 

Pure air, infants need it, - - - - 90 

" " its composition, - - - 95 

its value, - - - 88 

Raising children in sunlight, - - 80 

Reason and instinct. - 266 

Rest, every organ must, - 277 

Rest for the brain, .... 277 
Restriction, a consequence of, ... 133 

Rich food before sleeping, ... 300 

Requiring more or less sleep, - - - 313 



INDEX. 323 



s 



Sanitary laws, their value, - - - 19 

Sewerage and water-closets, - 120 

Scrofula, bad air produces, - 107 

Sick child, whose fault, - 22 

;> should rest, ... - 249 

Skin, the anatomy of, - 203 

" twenty-eight miles tubing in, - - 205 

dirty, smells bad, - - - 211 

" how to keep it clean, -•■-.'- 213 

Sleep, what it is, - - - 269 

" a life-giving process, - - • - 271 

" a dam on the river of life, - - 280 

" assimilation in, - 282 

" its necessity, - 283 

" where the infant should, - 285 

" its immediate causes, - 286 

" order of falling to sleep, - - 289 

the mediate causes, - 293 

" digestion helps, - 296 

" indigestion hinders, - - - 296 

" effective measures for, - 303 

" and puberty, - 312 

" soothing produces, - 302 

Sleeping with old or feeble persons, - - 314 

Sleeplessness and brain power, - - 305 

Soap, its ii-i'. ----- 215 

Some conclusions, - - - - 153 

Stooping and hieing, their effects, - - 117 



324 



INDEX. 



Stock-raising, - 

Student, what unsettles, - 

Sugar and candy. 

Sweat glands and their odors, 

Sweets and sugars, love of, - 



40 
311 
193 
206 
130 



Thought, teach independence of, 

Throat over-dressing, - 

The sickly should not have issue, 

The great question is "How?" 

The appetite a guide, 

The " wet nurse," 

The "bottle," 

Transmission, modes of, 

variable modes, 
" special points of, 

" of brain power, 

u 

Undershirts, don't sleep in, 

V 

Variety of food, - 
Vegetable feeders, 



w 



Water, keep clean with, 
Woman, the budding, 



39 

226 

77 

80 

136 

167 

168 

58 

60 

6(i 

68 



228 



155 
147 



210 

259 



A PRIVATE BOOK 



HOW KW BUM WHY 



ARGUMENTS, BASED UPON PHYSIOLOGICAL, MORAL, 

AND SOCIAL RELATIONS, IN FAVOR OF 

PREVENTING CONCEPTION; 



AND GIVING THE 



WAYS AND MEANS" IN PLAIN LANGUAGE. 



BY DAN NEWCOMB, M.D., 

Author op ' When and How." 



This book will be published April 15th ; will be neatly and 
strongly bound, 12mo. Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of 
$1.00. To insure a prompt return, give, in distinct writing, 
your name and address IN full. Direct to 

DAN NEWGOMB, M.D., 

62 SOUTH CANAL STREET, CHICAGO. 

Please inspect the 

CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. Modes of Propagation — A Description of Foetal 
Development. 

CHAPTER II. The Mother Provides for the Foetus and Infant — 
Woman should have Control of the Number of her Children. 

CHAPTER III. Excessive Child-bearing — To Avoid the Conse- 
quences, Teach how to Avoid Conception — Evidences. 

CHAPTER IV. Abortion; Its Frequency an Argument for "Pre- 
vention" — Evidence of Frequency. 

( ii \iTi.n V. The Right of Preventing Conception — The " Ways 
and Means" Plainly Given. 

CHAPTER VI. How to have Boys or Girls, or Beautiful Children. 

CHAPTER VII. Educating the Child "in Utero"— An Illustra 
tion. 



THE 



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A WORD ABOUT 

Dr. RIDGE'S PATENT FOOD 



Physicians usually will not prescribe an article for their patients 
unless they know something about it ; nor do mothers care to give their 
children a food they know nothing of; hence it is that we take this op- 
portunity of explaining, as far as necessary, what Dr. Ridge's Food is, 
and why it is superior to all othsr farinaceous preparations. 

In the first place, being prepared from carefully selected 
cereals, it is the most simple and safe food in the market. 

Secondly, it contains all that is necessary to nourish every part of 
the human body. 

As by analysis there is to be found carbon which is required to fur- 
nish fat and animal heat. Nitrogen which is necessary for nourishing the 
muscles. Phosphorus for the developing and nourishing of the brain 
and nerves. Lime for the forming of bones and teeth. Iron for the 
blood, and a correct proportion of woody fibre to assist digestion. 

In addition to this food containing all the elements essential 
to growth and repair, its strengthening, soothing, and digestive pro- 
perties are much increased by its mode of manufacture ; it is also ren- 
dered slightly alkali, which has a tendency to correct the plus -acid 
state of the stomach. It also has a great influence over the bowels, 
by keeping them in a healthy condition. 

The Patent Food is more concentrated, palatable and nourishing 
than arrowroot, sago, gruel, or almost any other food ; and from its 
having been thoroughly cooked beforehand in its preparation, it is 
easily digested, while its composition adapts it to all conditions of 
the stomach. 

It has for years been the principal food for children and dyspep- 
tics in England and the Colonies: and is proved by experience to be 
the best everyday Food for Children. Sold in tins, 35 cents, 65 
cents, $1. 25 and $1.75. 

A saving is effected by taking the larger size tins. 

WOOLRICH & CO., PROPRIETORS. 

GALE &. BLOCKI, Wholesale and Retail Druggists, 57 West Ran- 
dolph St., General Western Agents, also Importers and Dealers in 
Fine Toilet and Nursery Goods. French Artificial Eyes a specialty. 



